The project “Close the food circle” in the Municipality of Papagos – Holargos seeks to co-design with the Municipality, the tools for the effective management of a new recycling system, that of food waste.
The active participation of all stakeholders (i.e. the municipality, citizens and businesses) is the basis of the project. It aspires to achieve the gradual change of citizens’ attitudes towards food waste and shape new habits, that of separating our waste at source in order to be recycled or otherwise utilised.
The widely applied methods and current practices of Municipalities and Regions as competent bodies for municipal waste management are fragmentary, focusing for the time being on the formation of a regulatory framework related to the footprint of industries as a rule and do not approach the problem of organic residues from on the part of citizens and small and medium-sized businesses, despite the fact that our individual environmental behavior determines a very large percentage of the total burden. Based on data from EDSNA in 2019, Attica’s waste consists of 42.3% of organics, of which 82% is kitchen waste. Furthermore, taking into account the quantitative recycling figures so far, it is observed that even after almost 20 years of existence of the current recycling system (eg blue bin system), citizens do not participate in the right way.
Informing, familiarizing and gradually involving the community with the process of proper sorting at the source and with the use of the brown bin in their neighborhoods, all the while developing the tools for the Municipality in order to be able to continue the project in other recycling streams as well.
The project aims to change the prevalent perception around organic waste from ‘rubbish’ to ‘potential treasure’ and to facilitate the transition to a circular economy through the return of organic waste into the production cycle.
