Amsterdam bans creation of new hotels
Another piece in the overall strategy to reduce tourist flows to the city
Finally, some good news from the Aegean Sea this month
The small island of Tilos, part of the Dodecanese Archipelago, in the Greek Aegean Sea is now certified as the world’s first zero-waste island. The pioneering feat was achieved after a two-year journey, which underscored the intent of the local authorities and residents to transform their beautiful isle into a place free of trash.
July has been hellish, to say the least, for some of the popular Greek islands like Rhodes and Corfu, which have been scorched by horrendous wildfires causing unprecedented evacuation efforts. This news, unfortunately, overshadowed the amazing success story of Tilos.
That island is located west of Rhodes and is the home to some 745 inhabitants divided among four communities. However, in terms of environmental performance, it might as well be in another universe when compared to its neighbours.
It all started in 2021, when the municipality, together with Polygreen, a Piraeus-based network of companies promoting a circular economy, implemented a waste management program called Just Go Zero that allows its local community to dispose of almost all types of waste through a sorting and recycling system.
What followed was a period not only of raising awareness but directly teaching the residents the basic principles of waste sorting and circularity. The households and businesses were given QR-code-marked special bags to separate their trash. A door-to-door system of waste collection was then implemented to ensure that trash doesn’t go off-track.
The result has been truly impressive. 90% of the island’s waste is recovered and/or composted and all the landfills have been decommissioned. Two years before, that same amount of waste ended up in said landfills.
In the words of Tilos’ mayor Maria Kamma: “The [island] has achieved a green revolution beyond comparison.”
From 770 kg of municipal solid waste per inhabitant per year being produced before the implementation of the Just Go Zero Tilos project, the municipality’s figure now sits at 440 kg – a 43% reduction. Of this, only 54 kg is considered residual waste.
The above achievements were enough to merit 4 out of 5 stars in the Zero Waste Cities Certification. That was created by Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) and run by its sister organisation Mission Zero Academy (MiZA). The goal of the NGO is to accelerate the transition to zero waste and the implementation of the circular economy in European towns and cities.
Legislators and magnates have to await a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice
The building will then serve as the site for a new museum dedicated to Finnish-Russian relations
Another piece in the overall strategy to reduce tourist flows to the city
In addition, the federal government has launched the National Week of Action against Bicycle Theft to raise awareness of the issue and the new solution
The facility will replace the need to have water supplied by tankers from Valencia
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Legislators and magnates have to await a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice
It also set the standards for a better European parking card for people with disabilities
The benefit will last until the Dutch parliament adopts the transgender law
Experimenting with public transport provision in Germany is clearly in a state of creative fervour
It also set the standards for a better European parking card for people with disabilities
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Apply by 10 November and do your part for the transformation of European public spaces
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An interview with the ICLEI regional director for Europe аfter the close of COP28
An interview with a member of the No Hate Speech Network team