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His name is Bee, he is a black Labrador Retriever, and he has an extraordinary talent: detecting plastic hidden in the natural environment. In three years of activity, spent among the green spaces and streams of Madonie Park and the streets of Castelbuono, Sicily, this extraordinary animal has traveled over 800 kilometers, recovering 200 kilograms of waste and 600 plastic bottles, some of which are from closed companies. Bee is the foundation of "Recycling Dog", the first Italian canine unit initiative specifically developed to identify plastic waste in nature, led by trainer Piero Gentile. The initiative, created through collaboration between the Pachamama Aps group and the Municipality of Palermo, got a top award in Rome during Legambiente's Ecoforum, which coincided with the publication of the Comuni Ricicloni report. Bee, thanks to specialized training from birth, can reach locations that mechanical means and human operators cannot. The model's success has sparked the curiosity of other Italian regions, including Veneto and Piedmont, who want to recreate the experience.
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