Alonissos declares war on plastic bags

Destination to protect endangered monk seals with ‘Plastic-bag free Alonissos’

December 1st marked an important milestone not only for the island of Alonissos – one of the contenders in the  100Top Sustainable  Destinations – but also for Greece as a whole.

This beautiful island, located in the Northern Aegean is the habitat one of the most important remaining populations of Mediterranean monk seals (Monachus monachus) in the Mediterranean.

It is also the first area in Greece that put an end to single-use plastic carrier bags through the project "Plastic bag-free Alonnissos".

Mr. Petros Vafinis, Mayor of Alonissos, the vice-mayors Mr. Angelos Argyriou and Mr. Kostas Kalogiannis, the chair of the council Mr. Panagiotis Tsoukanas, Chair of the Municipality Council, and other members of the Council, as well as local school students and volunteers, greeted residents at super markets and other stores to inform them about the initiative.

Apart from brochures, residents were provided with 100% cotton shopping bags, as a natural alternative to plastic bags for their personal use. At the same time, the supermarket owners, who enthusiastically embraced the initiative from its first steps, have stopped providing customers with single-use plastic carrier bags at their checkout lines. Instead, they give customers the choice of reusable carrier bags.

The next steps in this project include further distribution of cotton bags and brochures to all of the island’s households. Furthermore, educational activities for students, teacher seminars, voluntary beach clean-ups, as well as participatory workshops with local stakeholders, will be organized.

At a time when the economic depression has taken sustainable solutions off the political agenda, a small island is putting the protection of its natural assets into action by adopting new practices and a different culture towards environmental management.

Alonissos "turns the page", blazes a trail in the fields of environmental conservation and protection and becomes a top destination for alternative tourism. Hopefully, this initiative will serve as an example to other islands and coastal areas to follow suit.

The project "Plastic bag-free Alonissos" is carried out by the MEDITERRANEAN SOS Network and MOm/ Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal, in cooperation with the Municipality of Alonissos. It is funded by the Thalassa Foundation.

Valere Tjolle

@ValereTjolle [email protected]

Alonissos is featured in the World Top 100 Sustainable Destinations at ITB