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.Greece’s Islands Are Zero-Waste Laboratories
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.
some teens broke into the mansion of an Australian oil executive to throw a party, drink their booze, steal their stuff and trash the place. Wow, how irresponsible of them. Weren't they thinking about those rich people's habitat? Where will they live now? Am I laying this point on thick enough for the joke to scan
I'm a couple days late because things have been busy, but I just passed my four-year anniversary of moving to Belgium! 🇧🇪
As Laurie Paul would say, it's hard to evaluate a transformative experience: I'm just clearly not the same person I was four years ago. (Même simplement apprendre une deuxième langue garantit ça.)
But this really has been spectacular: great colleagues, great projects, great financing, university support, an incredible city (Brussels, I mean, not LLN, ahem). 1/
Auspol reproductive rights
Vic Labor voted AGAINST this bill that would help reproductive health be more accessible and affordable.
Labor siding with the Libs for publicly funded religious institutions to be able discriminate against those in need is bloody shameful. #auspol
@clawfire Ici, à l’état de Queensland, qui a un climat sous-tropique, si la température tombe de 30 degrés à 28 degrés, plusieurs personnes mettent soudainement un manteau !
@helene 13 words 😉
@paulkater I sometimes wonder what people from the 1% think about such dystopian films.
@clawfire Wouah !
I live on Gubbi Gubbi land. My pronouns are he/him or they/them. J’apprends le français. I’m gay, married, and a parent. I try to live according to Stoic philosophy. @stoicism