Plastic bottles are “chocking” Greek islands

In the darkest colors, Bloomberg presents the dependence of popular, Greek, arid islands (Aegina, Patmos, Santorini) on plastic bottles of water to meet the needs of their residents and the millions of visitors who choose them every summer for their holidays, leaving money in the Greek economy, but at the same time burdening the islands with their environmental footprint.

According to the publication, it is estimated that each visitor consumes an average of nine plastic bottles of one and a half liters of water for their stay, which means that for Santorini - which only in August 2021 reached 136,523 international arrivals - they consumed 1,228,707 plastic bottles. , which then need to be properly managed to end up in recycling rather than on the seabed or landfills.

Recycling

In a meeting with the Minister of Tourism in October, the mayor of Santorini Antonis Sigalas discussed a strategic plan for the island with proposed actions in order to achieve sustainable tourism development related to, among other things, integrated waste management. "I do not think that the image presented by the article is in line with the image of Santorini, which last year and this year was cleaner than ever," Dimitris Kampanos, associate of the mayor of Santorini and manager of the organization "Dive in Action" told "NEA". »Which assists the municipal authority in environmental actions.

"In Santorini we are at a very good level in terms of recycling. The municipality has started with the Recycling Center for the Sorting of Recyclable Materials since 2014 and every year it increases the quantity it collects. I'm happy but people have not yet matured enough to make it work.

Also, the municipality has made great progress in integrated waste management. We...