Beach cigarette butts targeted

With official data suggesting cigarette butts account for 30-40% of the waste that ends up on Greek beaches, a new initiative that started a few months ago as a pilot in the port and the beaches of Rafina in Attica showed that such rubbish can be reduced by up to 60% with the right information campaign and infrastructure. 

The program started in October 2021 by the Aegean Rebreath organization in cooperation with local authorities in Rafina is funded by a private company.

It uses images from the Copernicus satellite, which are processed by an artificial intelligence algorithm to track problem areas, where special bins are placed.