On Monday, December 13th, 2021, the project's press event entitled: "Reducing the consumption and distribution of single-use plastics in the tourism industry in Cyprus, Greece and Malta", also known as"SUPMed",was held online.
During the event, participants had the opportunity to get informed about the problems faced by the environment and in particular the touristic industry by the use of Single Use Plastics (SUPs), the agenda of European Union for the reduction and replacement of SUPs, what is presented within Greek Legislation for SUPs for the next years to come as well as the forecasted results and outcomes of the project. During the event, the free online Decision-support tool (DST) available for the hotels that has been developed was presented. The DST provides sustainable and available alternatives to single-use plastics, taking into account their costs and environmental impacts during their lifecycle. The event was also attended by a representative of a pilot hotel, who presented his experience of participating in SUPMed activities.
The event was organized online through the Zoom platform by the Chamber of Heraklion.
For the three Mediterranean regions participating in the project (Malta, Cyprus, Crete) best practice guides will be developed to present the findings from pilot hotels, the impact of plastic waste on human health and the environment, ways to reduce single-use plastics in tourism and other sectors and more environmentally friendly and affordable alternatives available. These guides will be disseminated to SMEs, Non-Governmental / No Profit Organizations, Tourist Accommodations and other relevant stakeholders across Europe, as an additional support tool for the replacement of single-use plastics.
SUPMed project will run until June 2023 with a total budget of 1,279,405.00 euros. The six partners taking part at the consortium of the project are Aspon Consulting Ltd – Leader Partners (CY), Heraklion Chamber (GR), Anelixis Development Consultants S.S.A. (GR), Cellock Ltd (CY), AIS Environment (MT) and Cyprus Hotel Association (CY). Upon completion of the project, the partnership of SUPMed project aims to reduce the consumption, disposal and impact of single-use plastics in the tourism sector in three Mediterranean regions (Cyprus, Greece, Malta) in line with the EU Directive 2019/904 for the reduction of the impact of plastic products.
The project "Reducing the consumption and disposal of single-use plastics in the tourism industry in Cyprus, Greece and Malta" is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway throughEEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.
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