Athens and Sustainability: Athens hotels support the Athens Municipality’s biowaste management programme

With a ‘special label’, the alternative management of biowaste in hotels, which participate in the Biowaste Collection program and contribute to the Municipality’s effort to turn Athens into a ‘green city’, is now recognized and promoted to the public.

The “Biowaste Seperate Collection” label and the Municipality’s Recycling Program were presented at a joint information event held on Tuesday 19/9/2023 by the Municipality of Athens and EXEAA in the presence of the Mayor of Athens Mr. Κ. Bakoyannis and representatives of institutions and hotels of Athens.

During the event, the Mayor of Athens Mr. Kostas Bakoyannis referred to the results of the Biowaste Management Program of the Municipality of Athens in cooperation with the hotels of Athens: “The implementation of the Biowaste Management Programme in cooperation with H.W.W.A.A.A. is an action that is part of our plan to make Athens, day by day, a more sustainable city for its residents and visitors. Our priorities in the coming period include strengthening all recycling actions and expanding, among other things, the network of brown bins in the city. We have already achieved a lot in the area of the circular economy, but more needs to be done. The climate crisis is here and there is no room to fall behind. We are glad that in this effort we have the tourism professionals, the representatives of the hotel industry on our side, because without their good cooperation, every effort would fall flat. We thank them warmly”.

At the same wavelength, the Deputy Mayor of Sanitation – Recycling of the Municipality of Athens, Mr. Nikos Avramidis, during his speech, stressed the importance of the programme for the environmental awareness of hotels (green hotels) and for citizens, its progress and the objectives for the next day. As he pointed out: “Today is a day of joy, because we see the biowaste management programme, which is being carried out in cooperation with 54 hotels located in the Municipality of Athens, bearing fruit. Over the years we have supported sustainable business, promoting the circular economy and waste reduction. We continue our efforts even more intensively, through the exchange of views and the presentation of best practices, with the aim of extending the programme to all the hotels in our city. Our goal is a sustainable, green and clean Athens”.

Η President of EXAAA Ms Lambrini Karanasiu Zoulovic, in her address, stressed the fact that for the first time the hotels within the administrative boundaries of the Municipality of Athens have the opportunity to receive a special award from the Municipality for their environmental action regarding the Source Selection of bio-waste. As the EXAA President said “
from 2020, the Biowaste Collection Program will be successfully implemented in the brown bins allocated by the Municipality of Athens to large “biowaste producers” – such as hotels.
The response of hotels to the programme has been significant and many hotels are already ready to move on to more complex and more radical actions. What is important, however, is the awareness and mobilization of all of us, all of us, all units down to the smallest, in all municipalities, all large producers of biowaste and each of us – as citizens. It is not important to collect only the bio-waste in order for the municipality to receive it; Ms Zulowicz stressed; it is important to find ways to contain them at source. In short, if we manage to reduce the quantities we produce in principle – the quantities that we ultimately collect will also be reduced.

The value of what has been implemented in recent years, in the city of Athens and in Attica in general, the need for what is needed and should have been already launched, as well as a series of challenges for the future, he said. C. Secretary of EXAAA & Second Vice President of POX, Mr. Eugenios Vasilikos in his statement.