Municipality of Athens: 1st Place Photo

The original work of art “Sustainable Skirt”, with a special symbolism, took 1st place in the photo competition held as part of the European Waste Reduction Week 2022 (EWWR).

The colorful, spectacular skirt, made from 1.5 tons of recyclable clothing and fabrics, was in fact the “raw material” for the Athens municipality’s campaign titled “Waste is out of fashion. We help our clothes… write their story.”

The processing, reuse and recycling of clothing and textiles, as well as awareness of the environmental impact of the production, consumption and disposal of clothing and textiles in landfills, were at the heart of the three-day festival, held at Serafio, a state-of-the-art sports complex. Through experiential workshops and workshops, original exhibits and creative dramatizations, all participants learned about the philosophy of sustainable textiles and interaction with the environment. The central slogan of the festival is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We help our clothes write their story.” And so it happened.

At the pan-European level, 16,129 actions were held in 30 countries. All these actions involved municipalities, public authorities, businesses, NGOs, collective recycling systems and educational institutions, emphasizing the importance of prevention, reuse and recycling.

winning photograph of the municipality of Athens will be posted on the central social media pages of the European Waste Reduction Week.

Deputy Mayor for Cleanliness and Recycling Nikos Avramidis spoke to APE-MPE about this important event, stressing that “the main task of the Municipality of Athens remains, in addition to informing and raising awareness of citizens, the implementation of waste management practices in a sustainable circular economy. Over the past three years, the Directorate of Cleanliness, despite the difficult conditions created by the quarantine due to the coronavirus, has managed to implement political alternatives to urban waste management. Alternative waste management and recycling in the Municipality of Athens remains a key priority for the municipal authorities. We want to restore the confidence of the municipality and citizens in the recycling sector, and we have already taken great steps in this direction.

So, together with the valuable participation and trust of the Athenian citizens, we succeeded and tripled the recycling rate to 7% from 2% when we took over, while our goal is to reach 10%. In the Municipality of Athens, we now serve other alternative recycling streams such as: recycling of cars, metal materials, batteries, old computers, electronic and electrical devices, clothes and shoes, etc.

Thus, through practice alternative waste management and reuse of materials, we reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, conserve resources such as fuel, water and raw materials needed to produce new materials, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and reduce plastic, which takes hundreds of years to digest. In the municipality of Athens, we are giving waste a second chance.”

The winning photo of the municipality of Athens will be featured in the European Waste Reduction Week (EWWR). At the same time, the municipality of Athens submitted other “works” to the European competition, which will identify the three finalists in April of this year, and in June the final winner will be announced in Brussels.

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