Friday 3 July is the International Plastic Bag Free Day: a global initiative that aims to eliminate the use of disposable plastic bags in the world.

Born as a simple day to raise public awareness of the immense use of non-biodegradable materials, this campaign is now part of the wider Break Free From Plastic movement, which brings together an international group of plastic pollution fighters who dreams of building a future free from difficult to dispose of waste.

Derived from oil, plastic is a material that takes hundreds of years to biodegrade.

Plastic is a soil and sea pollutant, causing the daily death of animals and even ending up on our plate.

In fact, this material does not degrade, but breaks up to microscopic dimensions that can even end up in our food and drinks.

Unfortunately, in this recent covid-19 situation, the use of single-use plastic has increased dramatically: this material that the world had begun to eliminate is returning to popularity due to the coronavirus crisis, to the great displeasure of environmentalists.

In any case, plastic is not an absolute protection. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hand washing is more effective than using gloves. Furthermore, according to a study published in the American journal NEJM, Covid-19 is detectable for up to two or three days on plastic, 24 hours on cardboard.

WWF repeats the alarm: as early as 2019 it had estimated that 600,000 tons of plastic had been discharged into the Mediterranean, of which 40% only in summer. «The cultural battle against disposable plastic seemed to have been won. A breach has been opened again today, and we will have to respond, ”said Pierre Cannet, a WWF member.

Are we doing something about it in Italy? Plastic-free municipalities are growing every day.

From North to South Italy, the number of municipalities without plastic grows continuously, giving more and more strength to a battle and a choice that should be unanimous.

Not only "seafaring" municipalities, which see marine species die every day due to plastic, but also inland and mountain areas.

Virtuous municipalities, which have made a choice, perhaps not comfortable and simple, but certainly virtuous.

Some of the municipalities that have become plastic-free are: the municipality of the Tremiti islands, those of Avola and Noto, Lampedusa, Linosa, Pollica, Orvieto and Sassari, Maratea, Malfa, Pozzuoli, Caggiano and Pantelleria.

The north also tries with the municipalities of Vernazza, Portovenere and Bordighera.

We also keep these two rules in mind: reduce the production and use of disposable plastic products, so as to also decrease the production of waste, preferring the use of reusable objects, and replace the plastic with biodegradable materials and compostable, disposable with the collection of staff.