Recycling and Reusing as a Renaissance Art

Recycling bottles of different colors and shapes

In Rome last week Piegaro won a very important reward for being the best in Umbria for recycling along with Torgiano (home of the Lungarotti wineries), Fratta Todina (originally a Florentine Medieval castle),  and Giano dell'Umbria (founded by the Romans on the famous Via Flaminia, leading from Rome to the province of Rimini). In Umbria we have a total of 92 municipalities, therefore we think of this prize as a very important reward. 

The Crodino payoff  goes:
"L'analcolico biondo che
fa impazzire il mondo"
(tr. "the blonde soft
drink that turns the world on")
was invented in 1964.  It is
a best seller in Italy.

One of the reasons for recycling glass in Piegaro is that here there is one of the largest glass factories in Europe producing up to 3 million and a half bottles a day for well-known companies such as: Campari (their famous  "Crodino" is the best selling non-alcoholic beverage in Italy),  Martini ("No Martini, No Party" is the line of the famous Italian TV commercial starring George Clooney),  vinegar producers, olive oil producers, wineries. Check the bottom of a glass bottle wherever you are in the world, look for the raised acronym "Vcp" (as well as "Vbd", with the "V" written exactly like a square root symbol). Your bottle was made in Piegaro, Italy! 

VCP stays for "Vetreria Cooperativa Piegarese" (Piegarese Glasswork Cooperative) and was founded in 1960. Last year the glass factory celebrated 50 years of success of their 180 partners. In the beginning partners were only a few brave workers who decided to go for the change. I am personally a fan of cooperatives and to me they would be wonderful management solutions for small companies in Italy now to recover from their temporary recession. We would keep our traditions alive and workers would not lose their jobs. Partners in a cooperative all have the same shares and their monthly wages (in Italy workers are paid by the month) depend on the job they do in the company. They have the same rights of other workers of equal fields. 

Example of a Murano glass chandelier.

VCP is a modern evolution of the local glass blowing tradition. Glass blowing art came from Venice and settled in Umbria through the Benedictine friars around 1293 A.D. In the church of St. Silvester in Piegaro there are two beautiful examples of  glass chandeliers: one made in Piegaro before the 1960s and one recently made in Murano, Italy, where the Venetian tradition is still alive. This latter a donation of a Piegarese family to the church. This chandelier was purchased in Venice, because the original tradition in Piegaro has evolved over the years to serve the market of bottles passing through flasks and currently producing industrial bottles. 

Nowadays modern glassmakers in the VCP glasswork factory check computerized kilns, glass cooling machineries and make sure that the automated palletizing machine is doing everything correctly. Quality check-up is  made by visual control and by very advanced computers that can spot defects and discart defective pieces.  They think of the bottle as a person and scan the bottles' mouth, neck, shoulders and body. 

Glass traditionally comes in two colors: green and clear white. The highest percentage of recycling is green because of the highest usage in homes compared to white glass ( green is about 90% recycled glass, white is about 30%). 

A super model of Renaissance times:  blonde Venus by Botticelli
painted between 1482-1485.  A very modern example of beauty, a long lasting
model of perfection. 

It is interesting to notice that art critics use the term "recycling" and "reusing" to express a Renaissance concept. 

Indeed the Renaissance period imitated latin and greek classics in style, excellence, virtue and example. Renaissance artists created new art products that revived the Italian cultural heritage and kept traditions alive by the usage of perfect classical models. 

The founding system of recycling models  in the Renaissance period was called "imitatio" (tr."imitation") and we may find this practice in arts, politics, social relationships and individual virtues (=the art of doing things well).  Imitation was based on classical rules which let groups of artists share life and work experiences with their ancestors'  pace and wisdom. 

Later on the concept of "imitatio" was reinforced by the idea of "aemulatio" (tr."emulation") which provided a list of technical requirements to different fields - arts, politics, literature - leading to a universal system that lasted in Italy until the Romantic period.  

Art bottles by Paolo Venini (1895 – 1959)

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- Original Posts by Roberta Niccacci -

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