Survey explores Italians' attitude to cleanliness

30th of October 2012
Survey explores Italians' attitude to cleanliness

Italian correspondent Anna Garbagna reports on a survey into people's attitudes towards cleanliness in daily life.

Italians are very fussy about cleanliness in daily life and they are careful with the type of products being used and their impact on the environment and health. These are just a few of the aspects highlighted by the survey carried out by Renato Mannheimer on behalf of  Afidamp Servizi in which he analysed health facilities, catering facilities, hotels, shopping centres, schools, public means of transport, roads and offices open to public.

On a scale from one to 10, the required value of cleanliness is 8.8. This is very different from the level being  achieved which was 6.8. The margin of  dissatisfaction is very large; it emerges from the survey that Italians are very conscious about the environment and health: 82 per cent of the people interviewed were concerned about the environmental impact of products being used, while 87 per cent were concerned about the effects of products in the household environment.

For Italians the greatest gap between the expected and actual level of  cleanliness for frequently attended environments,  was found in  all health facilities where the gap was 2.6 points on a scale from one to 10, with as many as 15 per cent of interviewed people highly unsatisfied. These values were second only to public transport which is required to have a higher cleanliness level compared with roads, public offices and shopping centres and was last in the ranking  with a gap of 2.8 points  and with 19 per cent of people highly unsatisfied.

Schools, in third position of environments requiring  great hygiene,  report a high level of cleaning only for the 28 per cent of the sample.

The situation is better for hotels and catering facilities where respectively  52 per cent and 51 per cent rated the level of cleanliness as very high. Urban streets present a substantial percentage of dissatisfied citizens who were looking for a more liveable and 'civilised' environment. As far as means of transport are concerned, it is the seats that make the difference; on the roads people cannot bear litter on pavements, and animal waste in particular.

The responsibility for the cleaning of public  places rests on the owners of the facilities: catering facilities (63 per cent), hotels (56 per cent) and health facilities (46 per cent). In the case of public offices, schools and shopping centres it is down to cleaning companies, without ignoring the role of the owners. For public places such as streets and means of transport, it is down to the civic pride of the citizens themselves.

Seventy-seven per cent of people believe it is important cleaners working in public places have a regular work contract and 38 per cent believe they must have professional training. The use of the appropriate  tools is  important for 86 per cent of those interviewed and  52 per cent believe it is  the products used that determine the final result.

For 85 per cent of people, cleanliness is important for health reasons, for 57 per cent it is associated with the concept of progress and for 55 per cent it is a matter of social achievement.

 

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