In July 2020, a project titled ‘Reducing the Consumption and Disposal of Single-Use Plastics in the Tourism Industry in Cyprus, Greece and Malta’, also known as SUPMed, was launched.
The project, which runs until June 2023, has a total budget of €1,279,405.00. The six project partners are Aspon Consulting Ltd as the lead partner (Cyprus), Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Greece), Anelixis Development Consultants S.A. (Greece), Cellock Ltd (Cyprus), AIS Environment (Malta) and the Cyprus Hotel Association (Cyprus).
The project consortium aims to reduce the consumption, disposal and impacts of SUP in the tourism sector in these three regions, in line with EU Directive 2019/904 on the reduction of the impacts of plastic products.
Following the completion of the pilot in each of the three regions, best practice guides will be developed
Through this project, the partners will support samples of coastal tourist establishments in Cyprus, Malta and Greece (Crete) via pilots to move to sustainable resource-efficient business models that will identify and replace commonly-used SUP with environmentally friendlier, readily available and affordable alternatives. The pilot samples will be supported in phasing out and replacing SUP via a bespoke free web-based decision-support tool (DST) that will be developed. The DST will present viable and available alternatives to the most commonly-used SUP, taking into consideration the cost and environmental impacts of each alternative across its life cycle.
Following the completion of the pilot in each of the three regions, best practice guides will be developed that will present the findings of the pilots, the impact of plastic waste on human health and the environment, how to reduce SUP in tourism and other sectors and what environmentally friendlier and affordable alternatives are available.
These guides will be disseminated to SMEs, NGOs, tourist establishments and other relevant stakeholders in the three regions and across Europe, as an additional support tool in replacing SUPs.
The project is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.
The project’s launch event will be held tomorrow, April 8, via Zoom. For more information and to register to attend, e-mail info@aspon.com.cy. To keep up-to-date with the project, follow us on the SUPMed Project page on Facebook, on Twitter @SupmedP and LinkedIn, and visit the project’s website at www.supmed.eu.