https://reasonstobecheerful.world/greek-islands-recycling-zero-waste/
"Before the tiny Greek island of Tilos became a big name in recycling, taverna
owner Aristoteles Chatzifountas knew that whenever he threw his restaurant’s
trash into a municipal bin down the street it would end up in the local
landfill.
The garbage site had become a growing blight on the island of now 500
inhabitants, off Greece’s south coast, since ships started bringing over
packaged goods from neighboring islands in 1960.
Six decades later, in December last year, the island launched a major campaign
to fix its pollution problem. Now it recycles up to 86 percent of its rubbish,
a record high in Greece, according to authorities, and the landfill is shut.
Chatzifountas said it took only a month to get used to separating his trash
into three bins — one for organic matter; the other for paper, plastic,
aluminium and glass; and the third for everything else.
“The closing of the landfill was the right solution,” he told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation. “We need a permanent and more ecological answer.”
Tilos’ triumph over trash puts it ahead in an inter-island race of sorts, as
Greece plays catch-up to meet stringent recycling goals set by the European
Union (EU) and as institutions, companies and governments around the world
adopt zero-waste policies in efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
“We know how to win races,” said Tilos’ deputy mayor Spyros Aliferis. “But it’s
not a sprint. This is the first step (and) it’s not easy.”
The island’s performance contrasts with that of Greece at large. In 2019, the
country recycled and composted only a fifth of its municipal waste, placing it
24th among 27 countries ranked by the EU’s statistics office.
That’s a far cry from EU targets to recycle or prepare for reuse 55 percent of
municipal waste by weight by 2025 and 65 percent by 2035."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
