Walking, you know, is good for the body and also for the mind, because it reconciles reflection, but what if it also serves to improve the environment? We cannot think of eating well without taking care of the area around us, we can choose the best products, but if nature is not respected, the result will never live up to expectations.
Driven by this reflection, Marco Olmetti, cook at the restaurant of the Osteria Pepenero in Portoferraio, which is part of the Vetrina Toscana network, has created “Food for Trash: walk and clean”. The initiative consists in inviting friends and customers to collect (bags, bags, bottles, snack paper, cans, shells …) everything that pollutes the environment, during their walks. Those who have collected more plastic and metal during their walks on the Elban paths on 31 May will receive as a prize a dinner for two with a tasting menu at the Osteria Pepenero.
To participate, it is necessary to publish the photos during the collection (perhaps also indicating the area so that other people can help complete the work) and the final photos with the bags and their weight in the public group created specifically on Facebook.
The initiative was immediately supported by Vetrina Toscana, the Tuscany Region and Unioncamere project that promotes quality restaurants, shops and productions that express the identity of the territory and enhances the food and wine culture as a tourist attraction, which will recommend it as a good practice to be extended to the whole network. A simple idea, but precisely because of this viral, because it is within everyone’s reach.
“I’m trying to give back something of what this splendid nature has transmitted to me in recent months – said Marco Olmetti – and I do it by giving away my work for the most hard-working. An aware customer is the normal evolution of a citizen who is respectful of his surroundings”.
The initiative is totally in line with the objectives and actions envisaged by the “Toscana Plastic Free” project born thanks to the memorandum of understanding – signed in December 2019 – between the Regional Council and Toscana Promozione Turistica, which aims at increasing information and awareness of both Tuscan citizens and those who choose Tuscany for their holidays, sensitizing them towards active citizenship and eco-conscious and plastic free lifestyles.
Sustainability is one of the elements on which the Tuscany Showcase project is based, which for over 20 years has been promoting the use of typical local products. Those who join the network, both as a consumer and as an actor, can experience not only a taste experience, but understand the value of what is on the plate and also of their choices. Understanding how a product is born, the story behind it, increases respect for the product and for the landscape that allows its growth, also promoting greater environmental awareness and sustainability.
