Plastic purge makes waves in Cyprus - 1st July 2022

Tourists vacationing in Cyprus are being cajoled into going without plastic, in an environmental endeavour to purge the island's shores of single use plastics.

In partnership with TUI, a prominent travel firm, the bold initiative has kicked off at two of Cyprus' tourist hot spots. Veronika Blach is senior programme lead at TUI Care Foundation.

Veronika Blach: "It's important that we all work together, especially the tourism sector. There's so much to be done. Think of all the businesses, the bars, restaurants, hotels, and how much plastic is consumed there. There's so many reductions but there's still so much plastic, so we can do so much more together."

The programme's necessitated close collaboration with seafront hospitality concerns, and it's been a steep learning curve for hoteliers and for restaurateurs like Chris Karas.

Chris Karas: "At the beginning, it was difficult to think that we would not have single-use plastics such as water bottles, etc. But, slowly slowly, with the help of the initiative, and with the will of our staff and us as managers, I think we quickly realised that it isn't actually that hard. But we're only at the beginning of the goal we're trying to achieve – to save the environment."

The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development has estimated that in 2019, out of 460 million tonnes of plastic, less than 10 percent was recycled. At the Cypriot seaside, the installation of water filling stations permits holidaymakers to replenish their bottles gratis, avoiding single use plastic containers.

The 'Keep our sand and sea plastic-free' initiative is project-managed by Panagiota Koutsofta, who's over the moon with the current outcomes and now has great ambitions.

Panagiota Koutsofta: "We have succeeded since the beginning of the project to reduce the use of single-use plastics – adding up to the weight of 23 aircrafts Boeing 737. Therefore, our goal is to reduce the use of more plastics – why not maybe adding up to the equivalent weight of thousands of aircrafts, why not!"

Tourists are being urged to support the clean-up by scavenging for plastic fragments and cigarette butts in the sand.

Statistical data regarding the profile of the debris bagged over a 100m2 area is then sent over to the European Environment Agency, with the goal of furthering ecology-related policies across the continent.