The extended regional stakeholder meeting on behalf of the Municipality of Rethymno took place virtually in two days: January 24 and February 2, 2022. The second day which involved an open meeting was originally planned for 25 January 2022, however, it was postponed due to extreme weather conditions in Greece.
The meeting was entitled “Phasing single-use plastics out of the regional value- chains through consensus building with producers and consumers”.
During the first day, the municipality presented the results of the interregional workshop on “Effective waste management policies and measures to reduce plastics waste landfilling and incineration” which took place virtually on November 23 and 24, 2021 and was organized by the Styria partner. The presentation was followed by the participants’ discussion and the attendees were informed about the second open-meeting and the thematics.
During the second day of the meeting, the attendees were informed about:
- The activities of the Project planned so far as well as those that will follow
- The single-use plastics, the relevant legislation and the expected impact of their abolition
- The prospects of circular economy
- The importance of recycling and sorting at source
- Good practices applied for the replacement of single–use plastics with alternatives
- The role of Municipalities on waste management and sorting at source
The attendees were around 50 in total from a variety of sectors: representatives of local authorities (the Region of Crete, the Municipality of Rethymno, etc.), research institutions, academia, and enterprises.
The presentations were followed by a fruitful discussion among the participants exchanging their opinions on waste management, the new National Waste Management Plan and the importance of cooperating with other European projects.
