Aegean Rebreath, in collaboration with the Municipality of Antiparos and with the kind donation of PepsiCo Hellas, is developing an innovative program for the island in order to address, through holistic interventions, the issue of marine litter.
The program that will be carried out gradually throughout 2022, is added to the important initiatives and actions that have been undertaken by the municipality in collaboration with Aegean Rebreath to address marine pollution. Antiparos is an important and pioneering member of the Blue Municipalities Network, as it was the first Municipality to support the installation and operation of a Marine Litter Collection Station with significant benefits for the local community. The Antiparos Marine Litter Collection Station has so far collected more than 13,000 recyclable materials and 2.5 tons of fishing gear (3rd in the ranking of all Network members), while, after multiple field operations by Aegean Rebreath, Antiparos has now been relieved of its burden of marine litter. In this context, the new program aims to further consolidate the principles of recycling and circular economy by actively involving the local community, hospitality businesses and visitors.
The new program aims to adopt all the organized beaches of Antiparos and to implement initiatives to raise visitors’ awareness about the value of recycling and the environmental issues arising from the reckless disposal of single-use packaging in the marine environment. At the same time, it seeks to empower hospitality professionals through specially designed workshops and aspires to prove that small changes in our daily habits can have a major positive impact on the marine environment. Therefore, it is clear that Antiparos is an island where holistic marine protection interventions are applied in order to minimize litter at the island’s seabed and coast.
