A bagful of trust: in 24 cities, doing good means putting on gloves!

A pair of gloves. A bag to fill. A part of the city to look after together. 24 October 2026 is the date chosen by Plastic Free and Seconda Chance for a nationwide initiative whose announced programme covers twenty-four cities in ten regions. Alongside volunteers are people in prison and people serving sentences in the community.

The 24 October mobilisation has ended. Seconda Chance remains a way to learn about environmental volunteering and the encounters it can create.

The task is practical: picking up discarded rubbish. Its meaning also lies in the relationships a shared activity can make possible. A city consists of places to respect and people who need a responsible way to become part of it again.

Two organisations sharing a stretch of the road

Plastic Free works to tackle plastic pollution. Seconda Chance APS supports the social and employment reintegration of prisoners and former prisoners. This is the first national initiative announced after an agreement with Italy’s Department of Prison Administration, which provides for at least two such mobilisations each year.

Continuity matters. An experience can open a relationship; helping it grow requires further opportunities, commitments kept and practical ways to contribute. That is one area in which a volunteering project can find its value.

A map stretching across Italy

The calendar includes Monza and Varese in Lombardy; Bacoli, Castel Volturno, Mondragone, Naples and Salerno in Campania; Corigliano-Rossano, Crotone and Palmi in Calabria; and Pofi, Sermoneta and Viterbo in Lazio.

Also listed are Castelfranco Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Parma and Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna; Livorno and Prato in Tuscany; Padua and Venice in Veneto; plus Trieste, Bari and Catania. This is the map published by the organisers before the event: a programme, not a final account of activities completed.

Trust needs opportunities

Presenting the initiative, Plastic Free’s secretary general Margherita Maiani links environmental care with personal responsibility and rebuilding trust. Seconda Chance founder Flavia Filippi highlights the chance to make these experiences more continuous through the agreement with the Department.

Starting again asks for commitment from the person rebuilding their life and openness from the people they meet. Working side by side offers a simple chance to know someone through what they do: turning up, listening to instructions, taking on a task and completing it with others.

A way of looking that leaves room for a future

In the Gospel, the encounter with Zacchaeus connects welcome with change: someone calls him by name, and he makes practical commitments to the people he has harmed. Responsibility has a central place in that story. The possibility of change finds space within a relationship.

That perspective is valuable when we discuss reintegration too. It avoids reducing a person to a label and takes seriously the path they are asked to follow. Caring for a public space can become one occasion on which that path meets the wider community.

Would you like to help?

The 24 October initiative was also open to the public, with free registration. To find upcoming activities near you, visit Plastic Free’s events section for details from local coordinators.

A friend to invite, suitable shoes and a few available hours can be a beginning. Something lovely happens when that beginning becomes a habit: noticing the place where we live and choosing to look after it together.