To bridge the gap with EU targets on dead batteries, Erion Energy has launched a communication campaign drawing on Dantesque circles and local dialects.
Imagine a modern Virgil accompanying Dante through the punishments and virtues of separate waste collection for dead batteries, guiding him on an allegorical journey through the Italian consumer's soul. A place where procrastinators, the disorganised, the superficial and the indifferent take the place of the pusillanimous, the greedy, the wrathful and the flatterers described by the great poet. The new national communication campaign by Erion Energy, the Erion system consortium dedicated to battery waste management, draws its inspiration from the Divine Comedy. An ironic narrative structured as a fully-fledged contemporary Comedy.
Even the campaign title – "Se lo sai, perché non lo fai?" ("If you know it, why don't you do it?") – hints at the motivations behind the initiative. Namely, to break down the very real short circuit between theory and practice. When it comes to used batteries, our country is caught in an obvious paradox: almost all citizens know perfectly well how they should behave, yet few actually put good practices into action. According to a recent survey conducted by Ipsos Doxa for Erion Energy, as many as 92 per cent of Italians are aware of the need to collect dead batteries separately; yet real-world data paint a picture in which the actual collection rate sits at a mere 31 per cent. A significant gap not only between words and deeds, but also in relation to the stringent targets set by the European Union, which require a 63 per cent collection rate for portable batteries to be reached by the end of 2027.
The consortium's strategy bets on irony and collective imagery, borrowing the structure of the Divine Comedy. The protagonists are two batteries that move through "infernal" and "paradisiacal" circles, reflecting the habits of Italian consumers divided into eight distinct profiles. Among the "damned" of general waste are the procrastinators, who always put off the moment of disposal, the disorganised, who let dead batteries pile up in their kitchen drawers, the superficial, convinced that a single battery makes no difference, and the indifferent, who keep tossing them in with general rubbish. On the opposite side stand the meticulous, who separate batteries from WEEE, the virtuous, who dispose of them straight away, the determined and the righteous — models of circular, responsible behaviour.
To make the message even more immediate, the campaign also speaks the languages of local communities, helping to turn awareness into action. "Se lo sai, perché non lo fai?", the main tagline, is rendered in local dialects: from Neapolitan "Sì 'o ssaje, pecché nun 'o faje?" to Brianza dialect "Se te set bon de savel, perché te el fa minga?". As Laura Castelli, Managing Director of Erion Energy, explains: "Knowing that dead batteries must be collected separately is not enough: this awareness needs to become a daily habit. With this campaign we choose irony to raise a smile among citizens and invite them to recognise themselves in small gestures we can all improve upon. The reference to the Divine Comedy and the use of dialects help us speak a familiar language, reminding people that every battery disposed of correctly can help protect the environment and recover precious resources." Contributing to the campaign's impact on younger, digitally native audiences is the involvement of eight content creators, tasked with amplifying the messages and showing in a light-hearted way how to correct small everyday bad habits. The initiative is designed, above all, to remind people that used batteries are not mere waste, but urban mines from which critical raw materials can be recovered.