On Thursday, November 23, 2023, the Department of Environment, of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment held an informative Day at the Melina Merkouri Cultural Center, entitled “Take it another way.., put the waste in the circle of life”. The conference was held within the framework of the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR), which for 2023 was set for the week of November 18-26, with the theme “packaging” and the slogan “Don’t Get Wrapped up”.
During this meeting, a welcome was held by the Deputy Director of the Department of Environment, Mrs. Elena Stylianopoulou, as well as greetings from the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Mr. Petro Xenophontos, and the Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Maria Panagiotou.
Afterwards, various actions related to the Circular Economy were presented, focused on reducing the use of packaging, reducing food waste and single-use plastics with the aim of reducing waste production, limiting unnecessary packaging, promoting reusable and refillable packaging solutions and promoting recycling.
Specifically, the policies implemented at the European level, the actions of the LIFE-IP CYzero WASTE Project, as well as the cooperation platform for food donation created by the NGO “Friends of the Earth” as part of the LIFE FOODPRINT Project, were presented. This was followed by the presentation of the ways of processing food waste promoted by KES College, while the good practices of packaging prevention and reduction of single-use plastics applied by the companies P&P Ice Cream Group, Caterways Co and Green Dot were also presented. Also, the benefits resulting from the creation of a recycled coffee capsule promoted by the Vassos Eliades company were highlighted, as well as the actions to reduce plastic pollution implemented by the Keep our Sand and Sea Plastic Free Initiative. Finally, the actions implemented by the 1st Primary School of Pallouriotissa to deal with the climate crisis were presented.
At the same time, an exhibition was held in the same area of the event, where the participants presented the material of their actions, providing detailed information to the attendees. The possibility of exchanging and collecting clothes, toys and books, as well as the installation of the WEEE Cyprus and AFIS Cyprus systems at the exhibition site for the collection of electrical and electronic devices and batteries, as well as the on-site preparation of soup from the processing of leftover food and vegetables, offered participants the opportunity to actively engage in actions aimed at reducing waste production.
Υoy can find here the presentation of the actions of the LIFE-IP CYzero WASTE Project.
