The new “Betty’s Garden” in the courtyard of Peter Pan Nursery School, inaugurated today, was created through collaboration between the Municipality of Savigliano and ESO Società Benefit, established in 2017. What makes this playground unique is the special flooring made from sports materials collected throughout the municipality thanks to the esosport initiative.
Always attentive to recycling and sustainability themes, the citizens of Savigliano have, through a valuable “green” gesture, deposited end-of-life sports shoes, bicycle tires, and inner tubes over the years in ESObox containers that the administration has placed at 31 collection points distributed throughout the urban area.
The collection of worn-out sports shoes through the esosport project has as its ultimate goal—thanks to a careful recycling process—the generation of secondary raw materials, with which the administration has created the shock-absorbing flooring for the playground.
Giving back to the community: this is the essence of the circular economy project implemented in Savigliano with a strong educational message for future generations—a lesson on the value, including social value, of recycling.
“Betty’s Garden” is named after Elisabetta Salvioni Meletiou, wife of Nicolas Meletiou, Managing Director of ESO Società Benefit, who worked alongside her husband on the esosport project until July 2, 2011, the date of her untimely passing.
In Savigliano, it is located inside Peter Pan Nursery School at Corso Vittorio Veneto 46.
Present at the inauguration were Mayor Giulio Ambroggio, Councilors Petra Senesi and Paolo Tesio, and Nicolas Meletiou, Managing Director of ESO. Also present was former Councilor Massimiliano Gosio, with whom the project began during the previous administration.
“Today marks the culmination of a journey that began years ago and has been carried forward in recent years. It’s important that the chosen location is a school, because education about environmental respect is fundamental from an early age. Over these years, many citizens have contributed to the collection of used shoes and now see their efforts rewarded”—declares Paolo Tesio, Councilor for Ecology of the Municipality of Savigliano.
“We are proud to be the first municipality in Piedmont to have Betty’s Garden installed, and I thank everyone who made this achievement possible”—declares Mayor Giulio Ambroggio.
The city of Savigliano has demonstrated awareness of the importance of recycling and that waste can be transformed into a resource and returned to the community in a new form, like a beautiful playground for children. Thanks to the foresight of the municipal administration that believed in the value of our circular economy initiative—states Nicolas Meletiou, Managing Director ESO—today we are happy to be here and see the concrete return to the community of the recycled sports materials that have become flooring for the playground in the courtyard of Peter Pan Nursery School. I also want to thank Massimiliano Gosio, with whom we began the journey toward this realization.
