(ANSA) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 28 - Almost 32 thousand waste collected and cataloged by 697 Legambiente volunteers in the 66 transepts carried out in 56 urban parks in 28 cities, about 5 waste per square meter monitored and cigarette butts which represent 42.2% of the collected waste (13,483 out of 31,961 total), followed by bottle caps or cans and can tabs (3,005 pieces found equal to 9.4% of the total), unidentifiable pieces of paper (2,575, 8.1%), unidentifiable pieces of plastic (1,838, 5.8%), glass bottle and bottle pieces (1,710, 5.4%), and bags of chips and sweets and candies (1,009, 3.2%).
These are the data that emerged at the end of the "Park litter 2022" survey by Legambiente.
As for personal protective equipment, masks were found in 25 of the 56 monitored parks (44.6% of the parks) while gloves were found in 7 of the 56 parks (12.5% of the parks).
Most of the waste found, in addition to the category of smoking waste, is attributable to that of "disposable" products and those of "packaging" which represent respectively 21% (6,622 pieces) and 26% of the total (with 8,189 pieces), explains the environmentalist association.
Grouped by material categories, waste in parks is 62.1% artificial polymers (plastics) for a total of 19,844 waste, 13.5% paper and cardboard (4,327 waste), 12.7 % metal (4,055) and 7.1% glass and ceramic (2,260).
The remaining percentage of waste (4.6%) is made up of rubber waste, organic material, treated wood, textiles, bioplastics and mixed materials and WEEE.
As far as cigarette butts are concerned, the park in which the largest number was monitored is in Milan, the Parcodella Martesana, with 1,090 pieces;
followed by Avellino, Parco diNunno, with 1,017 cigarette butts;
Perugia, Parco Chico Mendes, with 953 butts found in 100 square meters and San Donà di Piave -Venezia (Parco Europa) with 643 butts.
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