In collaboration with the Municipality of Antiparos, Every Can Counts Greece (Kathe Kouti Metrai) has launched a pilot campaign to assess participation and return rate in a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). In October, the project began with the placement of two reverse vending machines (RVMs) and is expected to be fully operational during the summer of 2024.
The island of Antiparos, known to be a favorite spot for Hollywood celebrities, has been selected to implement a Can-Deposit pilot campaign in the Cyclades. This new initiative consists of setting up a specific recycling point where both local residents and tourists can exchange their empty cans for rewards and at the same time collaborate with a charitable cause.
The main objectives of the project are to facilitate the packaging return process and make it attractive to the local community through a circular recycling system that follows DRS principles. It also seeks to serve as an educational platform, providing information on separate collection and the multiple possibilities of aluminum recycling. In its first stage, two Pure smart shredding machines, created by the Finnish company Pure Recycle, have been placed on the island.
The main idea behind this versatile recycling solution is to compact variable quantities of cans efficiently and effectively, resulting in cost savings and increased capacity throughout the logistics return chain. This development is perfectly suited to the needs of small communities such as Antiparos.
On October 14, the inhabitants of Antiparos gathered to participate in an event that marked the soft start of a new initiative. At this event, in addition to learning about this initiative, they also pledged to use the recycling machines installed to exchange their cans for sustainable incentives. The meeting also provided an opportunity for open discussion with key figures such as Mayor Anastasios Faroupos, Lieutenant Artemis Triantafyllos, Eirini Topouzidou of Every Can Counts Greece and Kari Almen of Pure Recycle Oy.
Deputy Mayor of Antiparos, Artemis Triantafyllos, expressed that the ‘Every Can Counts’ program is very important and has a real impact on communication. This collaboration aims to establish a DRS trial to collect and recycle aluminum cans. The objective is to encourage the separate collection of materials and to use the proceeds from recycling for the benefit of the community.
For her part, Every Can Counts Greece program manager Eirini Topouzidou expressed her joy at seeing the first steps towards realizing the dream of recycling every can in Antiparos. The local community has demonstrated a strong commitment to the environment and is enthusiastic about adopting a more sustainable lifestyle based on the circular economy. With this pilot project, the objective is to introduce the Deposit-Return-Return System (DRS) concept to the people of the island and increase can recycling rates to approach the goal of reaching 100% recycling of aluminum cans.
The island’s citizens will receive real-time information on the amount of cans recycled and the CO2 emissions avoided with each can recycled. The system will use the barcode, size, weight and material to provide specific details about the collected materials. All aluminum cans collected will be sent directly to ELVAL, an industry in Greece specialized in aluminum recycling, guaranteeing an efficient and sustainable process.
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