EcoWorldly

To make money you need to work hard, win the lottery or stop by Greece and recycle glass, aluminum or plastic bottless. The city of Athens installed quite a few of those huge recycling machines that give back a little something every time someone recycles. The price list in Euros is:

• 1 cent per soda or beer can
• 1 cent per 3 glass bottles
• 1 cent per 3 plastic bottles

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The city of Athens made a big leap ahead by signing an agreement with all major food stores for replacing plastics bags used for carrying goods. Starting on April 14th 2008 every major super market within Athens will promote and sell the new green bags made from eco friendly materials.

Retailers like AB Vasilopoulos, Atlantic, Veropoulos, Bazaar, Galaxias, Carrefour Marinopoulos, Dia Hellas, My Market, Metro and Sklavenitis agreed to heavily promote and sell the new green bags for no more than what it costs to produce them. As of this writing, the price is still unknowm.

The campaign will run for 5 years using the motto “I am not a plastic bag”, targeting nearly 4.5 million Athenians or half the population of Greece.

Via: Athens city government

In a collaborative effort for public environmental awareness, electronics giant Philips and news station SKAI are giving away 50.000 compact fluorescent lamps in Greece. When compared to incandescent lamps of the same luminous flux, CFLs use less energy and have a longer rated life, saving thousands of tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

On January 26th, Philips and SKAI representatives will be giving away CLFs in the city of Athens, Piraeus, Marousi, Thessaloni and Ptolemaida. A week after, on February 2nd free CLFs will be given away in the city of Ag. Paraskevi, Koridallos, Kallithea, Ilioupoli, Patra and Aliveri.

The momentum of the effort is so great that the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs decided to mimic the initiative and suggested [.doc] the nation wide replacement of all incandescent lamps found in schools with CLFs. Feedback from the general public is also positive but some people are concerned about the mercury in CFLs.

Disclaimer: I work for SKAI Radio 100,3

Greeks are not to be considered as the most environmental conscious citizens of this planet but rules are made to be broken. Over the last couple of months more and more environmental friendly, or green if you will, commercials air on Greek radio stations. Greeks are now bombarded with commercials about new hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic, but if you thought that was it, you were wrong.

There are commercials evangelizing detergent’s and packaging superiority for products like SKIP and bottled water Korpi. According to a commercial, lowering the laundry’s temperature to 30C not only saves energy but also keeps clothes clean because of SKIP’s ability to dilute in cold water. Bottled water Korpi commercial claims that due to bottle redesign, the company managed to reduced plastic usage by 10% per bottle, a fact that enabled the company to sell 6 million less bottles, according to Korpi’s annual sales figures.

Whether such claims are hyped or not, is left to be seen. What really matters is that companies and marketing specialists realize and see the critical mass of eco-friendly Greeks out there.