I’m asking earnestly, because I was planning a trip there next year until I started seeing some troubling comments on Facebook pages and other SM about trash in the streets and on some beaches, as well. Does anyone know if this is restricted to certain areas, or if it’s fairly common throughout the island? Quite honestly, it was news to me, and left me totally deflated. Has anyone been there recently? What was your impression? Thank you in advance for your honest input.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16043 posts
Personally I haven’t been there recently but many of my Italian friends go there regularly, and several have vacation homes there but I haven’t heard anything about it from them or in the Italian news. Actually they keep sending me pictures of the island every summer when they are on vacation and all I feel is envy. But I’m sure in an island of 1.5 million residents and probably even more visitors in summer there will be places that are trashy.
Posted by
la rioja
589 posts
Pristine.
We were in Sardina the last week in August, and pristine is the world I would use to describe most of the beaches we visited.
Most of the time we were on the west coast, on less touristy beaches. The last day we were in Porto Torres, and we went to the local beach in the town, Spiaggia di Balai. Even though it was crowded it was not dirty, and much cleaner then some of the beaches I´ve been to in north of Spain.
We were in Cagliari for half a day, and it did not seem dirty at all beyond a normal urban level. Both Oristano and Bosa both seemed like places where civic pride was on display and they were very tidy.
Posted by
Citizen of the World
1997 posts
Sardinia has no problem with trash.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16043 posts
Well. Actually it looks like Sardinia is a leading model of waste management throughout Europe. But I’m sure there might be places where you can see trash on the ground.
https://zerowasteeurope.eu/2017/07/sardinia-proves-that-zero-waste-is-possible-on-islands-too/
https://www.missionzeroacademy.eu/waste-management/leading-by-example-sardinias-zero-waste-model/
Posted by
4949 posts
I don't know about land trash, but sea trash is a different matter. On Croatian islands, there can be a good amount of trash that is washed into coves--plastic bottles and the like. I inquired at a tourist office once and was told they had not yet "cleaned the beach" as it was early in the season. I don't know if that kind of occurrence is common in Sardinia, just thought of it when I read your question. Unfortunately, the oceans and seas are full of our trash, and it sometimes makes it way back ashore.
Posted by
OP
17 posts
Thank you so much replying to this topic. I do so much research when arranging trips, I suppose I’m bound to come across some unflattering reviews. Having been to Italy three times, though, I know that certain “challenges” are swept under the rug or unspoken about in the public sphere. On one occasion, I witnessed the dumping of human waste into the water of a well-known and otherwise pristine bathing area, so I felt it was an important question to ask.