Antonella Lomoro is the first president woman of Amiu. He succeeds Paolo Pate, after his resignation due to an indictment. There are several challenges that await it, from separate waste collection that is struggling to take off to door-to-door collection that will have to be extended for about half the city. In his words the work that Amiu will have to do for Bari and the goals to be achieved.
You are the first female president of Amiu Puglia, do you feel the weight of this “responsibility”?
«It is certainly an added value to a commitment that is already very important in itself and which I feel with a great sense of responsibility. We are witnessing a significant cultural shift in the fight for gender equality and I myself see big differences compared to the beginning of my career. I believe that this reversal of trend is necessary, however I don’t think that gender is decisive when it comes to evaluating the value of a professionalism.”
What do you think will be the first problems you will have to address as the new president?
«Rather than problems, I prefer to talk about challenges and my commitment will certainly be in the name of the continuity of a work that began some time ago and of which I myself was a protagonist on the board of directors. Bari and Foggia are complex cities, which require specific and dedicated attention, which is the company’s daily commitment. In Bari, at the beginning of this year we expanded the door to door on the entire territory of the IV Municipality and in a part of the II, i.e. the Picone area called Quartierino. We hope, by the end of this year, to extend the service to the so-called external area, namely San Pasquale, Japigia and Torre a mare. In Foggia we have recently started another very important challenge, linked to collection door to door for non-domestic users”.
In recent years in Bari a lot of work has been done to increase door-to-door separate waste collection, but despite this the percentages of separate waste collection are still far from 65%. In your opinion, why?
«As he recalled, our goal is to reach 65% separate waste collection by 2026. I am sure that the path taken is the right one. The expansion of the door-to-door service, the opening of the new CCR in via Martin Luther King and the mobile centres, recently increased from three to four, will help us grow. Certainly it is also a cultural issue, which is why we are very committed and focused on this aspect. Our objective will be to offer an increasingly efficient and effective service, to offer all the tools to the city and its inhabitants to achieve the objectives of separate waste collection, but we need the participation of everyone, including citizens. They are the main actors in this process, without their collaboration all our efforts risk being wasted.”
The plan for Bari envisages, in some neighbourhoods, the creation of waste separation with underground and non-underground intelligent ecological areas in the near future. Are there any timelines for these projects? How will it be possible to get citizens used to these innovations?
«Even in this case it is a mainly cultural issue. The new intelligent bins will be urbanistically integrated and highly performing. These are planned and implementable interventions with the requested funding. We hope to be able to create the new ecological islands as soon as possible, in the meantime, I ask the citizens of Bari to commit to recycling. A waste separation done correctly, following the rules, is an added value for all of us. Just understanding this would be a big step forward.”
One of the struggles that has always existed in the city is that against the indiscriminate abandonment of waste, I am talking for example of bulky waste. How is it going from this point of view? Considering that, unfortunately, we still see too much waste on the streets and in “improvised landfills”.
«Earlier I was talking about a cultural issue and the hateful phenomenon of waste abandonment is closely connected to this concept. Amiu provides a free bulky waste collection service near your home number. You just need to make an appointment by calling the toll-free number 800011558, which is free and reachable from both landline and mobile phone, or by filling out the online form. Suffice it to say that, in 2023 alone, the toll-free number processed 18,652 reservations for the collection of bulky items, yet there are those who, for incomprehensible reasons, persist in leaving them illegally on the street, disrespecting the city and the citizens. We also have a paid service, which includes the collection of bulky items from the floor. There is certainly a need for more widespread communication to inform citizens. We have expanded the capacity of the vehicles that are used for scheduled collections but, if our operators also have to carry out many unforeseen interventions to recover bulky illegal items, it is difficult to be able to ensure the service with certain standards. This is why we ask for citizens’ collaboration and commitment to following the rules.”
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