Wau! volunteers collect kilos of waste: "Lots of underwear and cigarette butts on the streets."

We are urban takes to the streets on weekends: a ton of garbage recovered in one year

Underwear, dinnerware, and even tires hidden in the bushes: these are just some of the items recovered by Wau! (We are urban) volunteers during meetings dedicated to cleaning up some of the city's dirtiest areas. While many Milanese enjoy a bit of rest on Saturday and Sunday mornings, over two thousand volunteers choose to arm themselves with bags, gloves, and tongs to improve the neighborhoods where they live. In the Certosa station area alone, 145 kilos of waste were collected last Saturday, following the record of 400 kilos recorded in the same area in December. "The biggest surprise was seeing that, after our last intervention, the ditch near Certosa station remained quite clean," comments the association's president Andrea Amato, who for seven years has been following the "Ghe pensi mi" (in Milanese dialect, "I'll take care of it") project in collaboration with various Milanese municipalities.

In 2025, Wau! collected over a ton of waste and approximately 150,000 cigarette butts, which were handed over to the Re-cig company for recycling. The cleanup operations are concentrated in various areas of the city, from the Montagnetta di San Siro to the Darsena, up to the Certosa area. The record for cigarette butts collected, however, belongs to Sempione Park: 22,000 in just an hour and a half. Among the more unusual finds, the president says, are never missing underwear, tires, and entire dinner sets thrown into the Navigli, probably at the end of a dinner that ended with a few too many glasses of wine.

"There are many people who complain without doing anything, but there are just as many who choose to make themselves useful and join us on the streets," Amato continues. The numbers confirm this surge in community spirit: in total, more than thirty thousand volunteers have signed up for the association's initiatives. Among those who never miss an appointment and decide to make a difference by getting their hands dirty is Hicham Tijan, a twenty-four-year-old who, as he himself says, has been volunteering his whole life. "So many people tell me: 'Why would you do it? Tomorrow it will be dirty again.' It's as if they were killing progress," he explains. "It's our city, it's the future of us young people. To truly change things, you need sacrifice and perseverance." Fortunately, Wau! explains, young people are increasingly numerous and engaged. "My mission is to involve more of their peers and encourage them to get involved. Being part of the change involves everyone," adds Tijan. Despite the evident results achieved, the association is aware that there is still a long way to go. "General attitudes haven't changed as much as we hoped, and smoking remains the main obstacle," admits Amato. Cigarette butts are the most polluting of all, but our goal remains to make people understand that we will continue to take care of Milan and that each of us has a responsibility towards this city.

Link to the site: https://milano.repubblica.it/c...