NAPLES, Italy — Say goodbye to the trash containers at the support site housing area.
Within a few weeks the bins will be removed and residents will have to separate their trash into recyclables and nonrecyclables. Details of the new measures will be announced at 6 p.m. Wednesday during a Naval Support Activity Naples town hall meeting in the community center.
“We’re going to do an A-to-Z, start-to-finish, on how the recycling program is going to work,” said Conway Cotton, Naples housing facilities manager.
Cotton said that the nearby town of Gricignano, on which the support site’s property sits, has had the mandatory program for about a year.
“We’re in the commune (town) of Gricignano and they are recycling,” he said. “Since we are members of their community, it’s mandated [for housing].”
Whether residents are ready for the change or not, Cotton said, things will be happening later in May.
“They won’t have a choice because the [trash containers] are going away,” he said.
And when the program starts, there will be specific pickup dates for specific materials — there will be no more taking out the trash whenever the bag’s full.
Cotton said that recycling bins will be distributed to the more than 800 support site housing units in the coming weeks, and on May 23 the recycling program is expected to kick off.
“We’re doing everything we can to get people to cooperate with this,” Cotton said. Letters from housing were slipped under all residents’ doors, an article was run in the base newspaper and a housing representative met with pupils at the on-base schools.
“The kids are excited,” Cotton said. “If we get the kids in, that’s half the battle.”
A handful of support site residents at the on-base coffee bar said they’re gearing up for the program’s start.
“I think it’s a good thing but going to be an adjustment,” Brenda Wells said. “I think it’s going to be a problem until people get used to it.
“When I was in Connecticut, we had recycle days,” she added. “I just had to remember which days were which.”
“The only problem I foresee is with regular trash,” said resident Jennifer Myers-Pfeifle. “The cats and ants [getting into the trash] ... that’s the only thing we’re worried about.”
