On Tuesday 26th of October 2021, the Cyprus Hotel Association has successfully implemented the 2nd press online event of the project titled “Reducing the Consumption and Disposal of Single-use Plastics in the Tourism Industry in Cyprus, Greece and Malta”, also known as “SUPMed”, in Cyprus.
Several stakeholders of the project, based in Cyprus, were invited, such as representatives of tourist establishments, suppliers and SMEs, representatives from local and national public authorities, etc.
During the 2nd press event, the attendees had the chance to learn more about the progress made so far in the project, the contribution of the EEA and Norway Grants and to hear first-hand from the pilot tourist establishments in Cyprus on their experience in participating in the project so far. In addition, an overview of the bespoke free web-based decision-support tool (DST) that has been developed as part of the project was also provided. The tourist establishments that are participating in the pilot sample of the project in Cyprus are:
- GrandResort, Limassol
- Atlantica Mare Village, Ayia Napa
- Radisson Blue Hotel, Larnaca
- The Royal Apollonia, Limassol
If you want to stream the press event, please follow the link here.
About the project:
The SUPMed project runs until June 2023 with a total budget of €1,279,405.00. The six project partners participating in the project are Aspon Consulting Ltd as the Lead Partner (CY), Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GR), Anelixis Development Consultants S.A. (GR), Cellock Ltd (CY), AIS Environment (MT) and the Cyprus Hotel Association (CY).
The project consortium aims to reduce the consumption, disposal and impacts of SUP in the tourism sector in these three regions, in line with EU Directive 2019/904 on the reduction of the impacts of plastic products. Through this project, the partners will support samples of coastal tourist establishments in Cyprus, Malta and Greece (Crete) via pilots to move to sustainable resource-efficient business models.
The establishments will identify and replace commonly-used SUP with environmentally friendlier, readily available and affordable alternatives. The pilot samples will be supported in phasing out and replacing SUP via a bespoke free web-based decision-support tool (DST) that will be developed. The DST will present viable and available alternatives to the most commonly used SUP, taking into consideration the cost and environmental impacts of each alternative across its life-cycle.
Following the completion of the pilot in each of the three regions, best practise guides will be developed that will present the findings of the pilots, the impacts of plastic waste on human health and the environment, how to reduce SUP in the tourism and other sectors and what envirionmentally friendlier and affordable alternatives are available. These guides will be disseminated to SMEs, NGOs, tourist establishments and other relevant stakeholders in the three regions and across Europe, as an additional support tool in replacing SUPs.
The project “Reducing the Consumption and Disposal of Single-use Plastics in the Tourism Industry in Cyprus, Greece and Malta” is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.
To keep up to date with the project, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and visit our project website.
