On July 14, 2021, the Municipality of Rethymno, Greece organized and hosted virtually the 3rd regional stakeholder meeting. The participants were representatives of regional authorities, research institutions, academia and enterprises related to plastics and the aim was to inform the participants regarding the results and outputs of the interregional workshops on a) How to support regional business to invest on eco- innovation in plastic production and reuse and b) How to facilitate the market placement of alternatives for single use plastics. In addition, the New Greek legislation which integrates the EU Directive 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment was also discussed as well as the project and its activities to date were. A fruitful conversation followed among the participants and the following key points were highlighted:
- The problems about plastics and their management are common among the regions of the partnership
- The implementation of the existing Greek legislation about plastics is a very important problem
- Awareness raising activities about plastics, recycling, etc., should be implemented to both consumers and stakeholders
- It has not been evaluated so far whether using disposable plastic alternatives causes any issues
- A significant issue in the existing recycling process in Greece is the process of sorting waste at the source
- Cooperation between the actors involved in the management of plastics and the sorting process should be mandatory.
