AFTER-LIFE COMMUNICATION PLAN LIFE 07/ENV/GR/000271 Development of Pay As You Throw Systems in Hellas, Estonia and Cyprus
Description of project, objectives and targets The LIFE+ project titled The development of Pay as You Throw Systems in Hellas, Estonia, and Cyprus (HEC-PAYT) began on January 5 th 2009. The project is composed of 6 partners from 4 different EU member states. The Municipality of Elefsina, the LHTEE of Aristotle University in Salonica the Ecological Recycling Society from Greece, Dresden Technical University from Germany, Tallinn University of Technology from Estonia and Technomart Ltd from Cyprus. The project aims to examine and develop methodologies for Pay As You Throw systems in Greece, Estonia and Cyprus and to implement a pilot PAYT system in the Municipality of Elefsina, in order to reach the overall objectives of the project which are to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill; to promote and implement wide scale recycling projects; to reach high recycling targets, specifically in regards to packaging waste, WEEE, batteries and bio-waste; to develop and implement a demonstration project for the application of PAYT in the Municipality of Elefsina; to implement a demonstration project in Greece which will examine and re-evaluate the existing pricing mechanism in regards to landfill use and costs; to determine which PAYT model is the best for Estonia and Cyprus; to create synergies between the Greek waste management stakeholders so as to promote and develop best possible synergies and integration of the recycling infrastructure to secure best results; to include the public in stakeholder meeting so as to insure their wide-scale cooperation and to take into account their views on the issue and the socio-economic factors related to the public; to conduct a survey and examine all the existing Pay As You Throw systems at a global level and to see which can best be applied to the geographical areas of this project where no such concepts exist; to share the experience and knowledge acquired in this project with other stakeholders so that they may benefit from the best practices acquired in the project; to provide the public with information for the promotion and implementation of sustainable consumption practices, waste prevention, reduction and recycling and to therefore, indirectly support and develop recycling industries and markets. To reach these objectives the project has been divided into five actions. These are as follows: 1. Project management, reporting and monitoring. 2. Analysis and documentation and the study of the international institutional framework and needs analysis concerning amendments to the Hellenic, Cypriot and Estonian framework. 3. Pilot applications which include the study and application planning of alternative PAYT schemes in a Hellenic municipality; a pilot application
and the adaptation, adjustment and fitting of PAYT to Hellenic local conditions; what-if analysis also on the basis of negative results from previous PAYT applications will significantly reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill, be a pilot project for the promotion and implementation of wide scale recycling projects, and targets specifically in regards to packaging waste, WEEE, batteries and bio-waste. 4. Establishment of a stakeholders forum for the promotion and implementation of PAYT in Greece to examine and re-evaluate the existing pricing mechanism in regards to landfill use and costs. This will also create synergies between the Greek waste management stakeholders so as to promote and develop the best possible synergies and integration of the recycling infrastructure to secure best results. The public will also be included in the stakeholders meeting so as to insure their wide-scale cooperation and to take into account their views on the issue and the socio-economic factors related to the public. 5. Public Awareness and dissemination. This action will promote and publicize the project. It will provide the public with information for the promotion and implementation of sustainable consumption practices, waste prevention, reduction and recycling and it will share the experience and knowledge acquired in this project with other stakeholders so that they may benefit from the best practices acquired in the project through a workshop.
The communication strategy Numerous dissemination activities The following actions have been carried out: Stakeholders forums for the promotion and implementation of PAYT at the national level, in Greece. 6 Forum Meetings were taken place, four in Athens, one in Elefsina and one in Thessaloniki. Participants included stakeholders and representatives from all concerned parties, such as the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Justice, as well as representatives of recycling schemes, NGOs and local and municipal governance bodies. Creation and maintenance of the project web site The website is www.payt.gr. Through this website, it is possible to access all the information related to the project such as events and deliverables were produced from all partners. The information will be available in Greece and English, to increase the potential number of readers interested in project. Estonian version with short description of the project goals is placed on www.keskkond.ttu.ee with the link on the main website since the end of September 2009. Leaflet and poster Produced: o 30.000 leaflets and 2.000 posters in Greece o 15.000 leaflets and 2.000 posters in Cyprus o 6.200 leaflets and 1.000 posters in Estonia and distribute to Municipalities, schools, during the door to door campaign to the citizens, community councils, banks, conferences, forum meetings, citizens and to other organizations. The leaflets and posters are in Greek and Estonian version Magazines Two special editions of Greek national quarterly magazine garbage and recycling, one as a launch and one of the end of the project. The first edition dedicated to the project has been published by ERS. Contributions were received by all partners.
4.400 copies of the magazine were printed. They have been sent to the subscribers while 1500 are reserved for the households that were participated in the pilot application. 5500 copies of second edition of magazine were printed in order to present the achieved results. CD S Technomart Ltd produced virtual tour of the pilot project in Elefsina as well as to produce a CD to be distributed. 500 dissemination CDs have been produced and distributed in municipalities. Dissemination of the project result at final conferences Three final conferences have been taken place o By ERS in Athens o By Technomart in Cyprus o By University of Tallinn in Estonia. Participants included stakeholders and representatives from all concerned parties, such as the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Justice, as well as representatives of recycling schemes, NGOs and local and municipal governance bodies. Newspapers and interviews and seminars o Many articles published in local newspaper of Elefsina o Articles have been published in national newspapers such as Eleftherotypia, Kathimerini o SKAI media group included issues concerning PAYT in its media campaign it implemented in October 2010 with ERS o The TV program mila mou prasina on national TV was played on 22 May 2011, the first time, and it was about waste management in Greece and a presentation of Payt project, in the pilot area of Elefsina. People watched the route of the truck, the data from the weighting system and a typical housewife who separates the waste and how she uses the household composting bin. The same program is played in repetition since the first time. Door to door campaign The door to door campaign was planned and realized in order for the citizens of the specific area of the municipality of Elefsina, where the pilot PAYT project was implemented, firstly to learn about the project and its scope and secondly how to participate actively.
Future continuous dissemination plans Municipality of Elefsina Municipality of Elefsina carried out the pilot implementation, in a part of the city, with a weighting system placed on a waste truck. After the end of the project the weighting of green and blue bins, of the pilot area, will be done once a week by the staff of municipality.. The data will be kept in an excel file separated with the street name, where the bins are placed. The Municipality will continue to offer biodegradable bags (yellow colored with LIFE logo and with the name of the project) and multiple uses bag (white fabric with Municipality logo) to citizens who live in the pilot area. Initially those bags were given during door to door campaign. Whenever we are hosting staff from other municipalities and exchange knowhow we will have the opportunity to disseminate the Payt idea and project it in other municipalities. The study of Elefsina will be a good experience tool for the rest of municipalities. Also the problems and results of pilot implementation will be an example of things to do or to avoid in case of implementation of PAYT, on a larger scale, in case legislation will allow it. The Elefsina study will be available on sites, www.payt.gr and municipality site www.elefsina.gr. Also during interviews the Mayor of Elefsina and the deputy Mayors talk about HEC-Payt project. ERS The Municipality will organize a meeting with other municipalities and authorities in order to disseminate the HEC PAYT project. It will be done in the first semester on 2012. The general results of the project and conclusions of the study will be disseminated on an ongoing basis with reference to the project and its funding. This will be done through presentation at conferences and meetings and through the press. More specifically, the ERS will focus on these four areas: Communication to policy-makers The ERS will continue the efforts to change legislation so as to enable a charging system that will allow local authorities to collect taxes related to the amount of waste
produced. This communication activity will focus both on policy makers and Local authorities. It will focus on communication to the ministries (mainly the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate change, but also to other related ministries), the central union of Local authorities (KEDKE), Local authorities themselves and the regions. This will be done through the communication of policy papers, discussions in meetings and conferences and the press if and when relevant. Promotion of PAYT systems in Greece Dissemination to Municipalities of PAYT systems and their application. The study produced within the context of this project "The Application of PAYT in Greece" and the Guide of Good Practices will be further disseminated to Local authorities. These are both available on the site and will continue to be so for the next 5 years. The results will also be included in presentations to meetings and conferences as well as the ERS site and newsletters. Dissemination of Results to the General Public Through references in the ERS monthly newsletter and its site, it s social media accounts and the project site information will be made available to the general public. Furthermore, references will be made to the mass media where relevant to promote and showcase the project and the results and promote further developments in PAYT applications in Greece. Dissemination to other stakeholders ERS will also disseminate the results of the project to other relevant stakeholders both in Greece and abroad and where possible create synergies with other existing projects. This will be done through presentations at other meetings and conferences to other NGO and stakeholder groups through the ERS participation in European Networks and meetings AUTH A series of actions are described next in AUT s After Life+ Communication Plan, aiming to continue disseminating and communicating the results of the project after its end. Specific actions organized so far by AUT are the following ones: o Preparation of a journal paper on the basis of the HEC-PAYT presentation done by AUT in the frame of the June 2011 CEMEPE conference, to be included in the international scientific journal Biomass and Waste Valorisation. o Capitalisation of the HEC-PAYT results into a finishing PhD Thesis that is currently been compiled in Dresden University (also a HEC-PAYT parnter). Prof. Karagiannidis from AUT was recently appointed by Prof. Bilitewski (Thesis supervisor) as a member of the aforementioned Thesis Steering Committee (external advisor).
o Interviews with a number of municipalities (especially in North Greece) to inform them about the project results and pursue the potential and options of initiating PAYT schemes in their own settings. Acceptance so far has been promising at the present short-notice post-project frame, despite the on-going financial crisis, since the options of potential cost savings are clearly appreciated, especially now. o Link with the recently elected (September 2011) Regional Union of Municipalities on Central Macedonia in North Greece, to develop a regional framework for creating incentives for individual municipalities to proceed with PAYT schemes. o Presentation of the HEC-PAYT project and its results in the upcoming next international conference of the Hellenic Solid Waste Management Association - HSWMA (Prof. Karagiannidis from AUT, also a Board member of HSWMA, was recently appointed as the President of the aforementioned Conference s Scientific Committee). TUDD will disseminate the results of the project to other relevant seminars and conferences both in Germany and abroad and where possible create synergies with other existing projects. TECHNOMART The general results of the project and conclusions of the study will be disseminated on an ongoing basis with reference to the project. This will be funded by own resources. This will be done through presentation at conferences and meetings and through the virtual tour media that will be distributed on CDs. More specifically, the Technomart will focus on: Promotion of PAYT systems in Cyprus. Promotion to Municipalities of PAYT systems and their application. The results and the studies will also be included in presentations (Virtual tour ). Technomart will distribute 500 CDs in municipalities until the end of 2011. ( Annex IX.5 CD Virtual tour in Elefsina- HEC PAYT implementation ) Dissemination to other stakeholders. TECHNOMART will distribute the results of the project to other municipalities interesting or start the PAYT. This will be done through meetings. TUT o The general results of the project and conclusions of the Estonian study will be disseminated on an ongoing basis with reference to the project. o TUT promote the PAYT thinking in Estonia in different waste management seminars. o Additionally TUT is writing a paper about possibilities of PAYT implementation in Estonia.
WEBSITE The website will continue updating the information after the project has concluded The projects partners continue to cooperate and will disseminate and promote by own in the other areas the results of project.