Tilos: Aiming for a place among Zero Waste Cities

The municipality of Tilos announced its intention to join the Zero Waste Cities program in 2023, starting its collaboration with the Mission Zero Waste Academy, Zero Waste Europe, and the Ecological Society of Recycling, in order to be certified as a Zero Waste Municipality.

It should be noted that a year has passed since the start of the Just Go Zero Tilos program, through which the island of Tilos, in collaboration with the company Polygreen, aims to reduce and recycle, noting impressive results. The program has been implemented since June 2021 with the support of the Dodecanese Region.

At 90% the recycling rate on the island

In a short period of time, the island, with its innovative door-to-door collection and application of sorting of bio-waste, recyclable materials and residues, has succeeded in diverting 100% from burial and therefore ceasing operation of the landfill, while the recycling rate approaches 90%, while the European target by 2030 is 60% MSW.

The collected materials separated into three distinct streams at the source are taken to the Circular Innovation Center, the state-of-the-art sorting and management facilities for further processing. There, the organic waste, which makes up 1/3 of the materials, through composting, is turned into fertilizer and remains to enrich the soil on the island. Recyclable materials (which reach 57%) are divided into 20 subcategories, including paper, plastic, but also coffee capsules and batteries. The small percentage of residue, which has reached a minimum of 10%, is converted into an alternative fuel.

It is also worth noting that Tilos is the first island to achieve the goal of zero waste, based on European and international criteria.

At the same time, the island maintains a significant lead in the collection of bio-waste, which becomes mandatory for all municipalities from January 2023, along with a series of other local government obligations, such as separate collection and recycling in school units, the promotion of reuse and the creation Center for Creative Reuse of Materials.