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I already believe that nowhere else will match the quality of life I experience here in Tilos,” says Emmanouil Antonios Fotaras, one of 745 residents living on the small Greek island, located between Rhodes and Kos.
Aged 24, Fotaras has seen Tilos achieve national park designation and accomplish energy self-sufficiency with renewables. Now it has become the world’s first zero-waste island.
“I knew that [the Just Go Zero project] could bring many advantages,” Fotaras says about Tilos’ efforts to go waste-free, “but I underestimated the extent of its impact.”
The changes have been vast. Before the project began, the island sent 87 per cent of its waste to landfill; now 100 per cent of it is diverted from the dump.
The scheme has proved such a success that the island no longer has any rubbish bins and the landfill site has now closed completely. In their place is the Centre for Creative Upcycling, where items can either be repaired, reused, or turned into raw art supplies or building materials.
The project was overseen and paid for by Polygreen, a Greek company that specialises in circular economy solutions, but much of their success came through education.