Impressive are the results of the development of a separate municipal network for the collection of used clothes in the Municipality of Central Corfu, which in the previous year (2023) exceeded 125 tons of materials.

The Municipality of Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands, as part of its efforts to effectively manage the municipal waste generated within its administrative boundaries, to harmonize with national/European legislation, and to effectively serve all its citizens, created among other networks for the first time in its history a municipal network of separate collection of used clothing and footwear and other textile materials (clothes, bags, cloth toys, shoes, etc.).

In the year 2022, the Municipality of Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands in collaboration with the licensed company EAST – WEST, initially installed 26 special bins from which they collected a total of 57,715 kg of clothes (57.7 tons of clothes).

Due to the impressive participation of the public, in the year 2023 an additional 36 bins were placed, increasing their total number to 62 special bins within the administrative limits of our Municipality, through which more than twice the amount of used clothes was collected, more specifically 125,768 kg (125, 8 tons) until today.

From the above figures, it follows that, in just 2 years of existence of the municipal network of separate collections of used clothing and footwear and other textile materials (clothes, bags, textile toys, shoes, etc.), a total amount of 183.5 tons of used textiles were collected only from the participation of the citizens. This amount of used clothes was not transported and was not sent to the landfill, saving our Municipality the corresponding financial costs.

The specific statistics prove that by placing bins in a dense network (at least 1 bin per 1000 inhabitants), citizens have easier access to collection points and consequently send more quantities for recycling. In this way, the principles of environmental economics are also applied, according to which citizens should not waste time, money, and energy to recycle.

It should be noted that this specific action was included in the context of the participation of the Municipality of Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands in the “100 Intelligent Cities Challenge – ICC 1.0” program of the European Commission, where the Municipality participated mainly in the axis “Waste Management and Circular Economy”.

Mayor Meropi Ydraiou stated: “The results from the development of this particular network are particularly important. During our tenure, we developed several networks of separate collection and recycling of materials, created the initial infrastructure for the effective implementation of “Sorting at Source” and proceeded to procure the necessary bins and establish partnerships for this purpose.

We hope that in addition to the effective use of these infrastructures, in the coming years, municipal networks of separate collection and new waste streams will operate and develop for the benefit of citizens and our Municipality”.