MILANO (ITALPRESS) – Italian sports team with the environment. The Italian National Olympic Committee – CONI and CONAI, the National Packaging Consortium, today undersigned a Memorandum of Understanding that aims to structurally integrate the culture of recovery and recycling of packaging in the national sports system. To sign the agreement were the president of CONI Luciano Buonfiglio and the president of CONAI Ignazio Capuano during the presentation event at Casa Italia conducted by Massimo Callegari, journalist of Sport Mediaset, one of the most authoritative voices of the sports scene. A shared commitment that will accompany the Italian sports movement until 31 December 2028, coinciding with the conclusion of the Olympic quadriennium in progress.
Testimony of the concrete value of the initiative was the presence of two Olympic champions of Team Italia: Valentina Rodini, gold in double light weights at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and Fausto Desalu, gold in the 4×100 meters relay in the same edition. A participation that has strengthened the message of the agreement: the values that lead to the podium are the same that guide the challenge of environmental sustainability.
The CONI-CONAI agreement introduces an element of strong innovation: the definition of guidelines for sustainable management of sporting events, with particular attention to the correct differentiated collection and the valorization of steel, aluminum, paper, wood, plastic, compostable bioplastic and glass. Objective: the construction of a national model capable of orienting federations, sports societies and organizers towards increasingly higher environmental standards.
Sport, moreover, is discipline, responsibility, respect for the rules. Values that find a natural point of contact with the principle of responsibility at the basis of the CONAI system, guarantor for Italy of achieving the recycling objectives asked by the European Union. Environmental sustainability, thus, fits firmly into Italian sports practice.
“With this Protocol, Italian sport takes another concrete step towards an increasingly sustainable model – said President CONI Luciano Buonfiglio -. Bringing recycling, environmental guidelines and good practices into our plants and events means turning every event into a shared responsibility. Our athletes and athletes, with the values they represent, will be even more models of virtuous and environmentally friendly behavior.”.
The agreement also includes awareness-raising, training and information programmes aimed above all at young generations, because the gesture of differentiated collection becomes a culturally rooted habit. “Sport has a great communicative force: it can become a multiplier of virtuous behaviors – explained the president CONAI Ignazio Capuano -. Italy has already exceeded 76.7% of packaging recycling: it is a result that puts us beyond European objectives. But sustainability cannot stop at our homes. Doing well the differentiated domestic collection is fundamental, but we must pay the same attention even when we are on the stands, in the stands, during the great events that involve millions of people. This is where the environmental maturity of a country is measured: every event can become a concrete example of circular economy”.
A choice of vision, therefore, that looks to the future of the country system and entrusts sport a central role in the protection of the planet. “The sport taught me that every gesture, inside and out of the competition, has a weight – commented Valentina Rodini -. Today, helping to bring sustainability into sports spaces means transforming habits into concrete opportunities to protect the environment that hosts us.”.
“To be here is an honor and a responsibility – added Fausto Desalu -. Sports can educate, inspire and become a real example of attention to the environment and for those who will come after us.”.
-Photo f12/Italpress-
(ITALPRESS).
