My second day living in Florence I asked my landlord, Francesco, if we could drink the tap water from our faucet. He shrugged, told me that I could, but that he didn’t recommend it. His reasoning: the pipes are very old—so even if the water is ok, by the time you drink it, it’s not so ok. This is a popular sentiment in Italy, where approxiomately 31% of the population doesn’t trust the water that comes from the tap at home. Ever since that day, something has stuck out to me about living in Florence—the water. To this day, I have been unable to find a public drinking fountain in the Florence city center. Everyone drinks bottled water—at school, in restaurants, cafes, bars. If you ask for water in a restaurant, they bring you a sealed bottle. Tap water is taboo. Adjusting to this water consumption culture in Florence therefore meant buying a lot of plastic water bottles. For someone who heavily relies (and very much enjoys using) her large reusable water bottle, it irked me how much plastic waste I was producing as a result of this social norm. It was even a slight culture shock too, coming from my university in the U.S.A that recently banned the selling of plastic water bottles on campus. Out of the curiosity and frustration of producing so much plastic waste, I wanted to learn more about the material, what impact it is having on our environment, and what we can do to help.
At the rate at which plastic is accumulating in our oceans, it’s predicted that, by 2050, the mass of plastic in the world’s oceans will exceed the mass of all the fish that live there.
NEARLY A MILLION PLASTIC BEVERAGE BOTTLES ARE SOLD EVERY MINUTE AROUND THE WORLD.
THE AVERAGE SUPERMARKET PLASTIC BAG CAN TAKE UP TO 1,000 YEARS TO BREAK DOWN.
ONLY 9% OF ALL PLASTIC WASTE IS RECYCLED
SHOPPERS IN THE UNITED STATES USEÂ ON AVERAGE ONE PLASTIC BAG PER RESIDENT PER DAY.
SHOPPERS IN DENMARK USE AN AVERAGE OF FOUR PLASTIC BAGSÂ A YEAR.
ITALY IS EUROPE’S BIGGEST CONSUMER OF BOTTLED WATER.
Italians drink the most bottled water per person, at nearly 184 liters in 2004, today that figure is closer to 206 liters per capita annual consumption. In 2015 there were a total of 135 bottling companies operating in Italy, producing 255 mineral water brands.
The Metropolitan City of Florence has only 7 public drinking fountains. Only 1 lies within the city center, as marked on the map.
ITALY PROD BILLION BO YEAR, USIN TONNES OF AND RELEA 000 TONNE
DUCES 12.4 OTTLES A NG 655,000 F PETROL ASING 910, ES OF CO2.
WAYS TO REDUCE PLASTIC WASTE: 1) Use reusable bags when shopping. 2) Say no to plastic straws at restaurants, or bring your own reusable straw. 3) Use a re-fillable water bottle. 4) Bring glass jars to grocery stores for loose produce. 5) Buy in boxes! Items sold in cardboard boxes are easier to recyle than plastic.
This zine was created by Eve Wallack in the Making Meaning course in the Spring of 2019. The textures created in this zine were made using inked and scanned recycled plastic objects. No new plastic was created directly in the production of this zine. If more copies are to be created this zine will be printed on recycled paper to reduce waste. To learn more about this issue, visit National Geographic’s “Planet or Plastic?” website.