On Wednesday, 26 September 2018, the Alternate Minister of National Defence Panagiotis Rigas called a meeting at the Ministry of National Defence with Dimitris Politopoulos, President of the Hellenic Recycling Agency (EOAN), Haralambos Bilinis, member of the BoD of EOAN, Christina Efthymiatou, member of the BoD of EOAN, and Giorgos Balafas, Director of the Political Office of the Alternate Minister of National Defence.

The meeting took place following previous contacts in order to speed up actions concerning environmental and energy management matters of the Ministry of National Defence.

During the meeting, the participants discussed a wide range of subjects and confirmed, on one hand, the common understanding to strengthen in practice the field of common actions and, on the other hand, the common will to immediately move forward with certain programmes.

Taking into consideration the obligations/provisions of L. 4496/2017 on recycling, the population served by military camps and other military facilities, the type of waste in camps, the fact that both packaging and organic waste is produced in large quantities and is assembled, the operations/activities of canteens, kitchens, resorts, Officers’ clubs, administration buildings, etc., the ability for voluntary contribution and awareness raising, as well as the high level of organisation of the Armed Forces, particular focus was laid on the ability to implement the programme “Sorting at Source and Waste Recycling – Special Waste Management”.

A common conclusion was that, on condition that there is proper and widespread information and organisation, the results can be significant, since this will prevent large quantities of recyclable materials and organic waste from reaching the landfill.

Additional meetings will take place soon to plan the way ahead.