Greece National Action Plan on Circular Economy

Greece’s Governmental Economic Policy Council ensorsed a National Action Plan on Circular Economy in early 2018 to set the country on a path towards the long-term adoption of circular economy principles. This further supports Greece’s economic strategy in its key quest to “Green” the economy in a way that creates jobs, especially for women and youth, and supports long-term equitable and inclusive growth based on resource efficiency, promotion of SMEs, innovation and investment in new technologies, and strengthening of the “social economy” potential. The long-term (2030) goals of the National Action Plan on Circular Economy can be summarised as follows:

• moving up the waste hierarchy by focusing on preventing waste and improving recycling
• supporting circular entrepreneurship by promoting “industrial symbiosis” and business clusters
• supporting circular consumption patterns of re-using, re-storing and re-pairing rather than buying new products, especially for electrical and electronic devices
• enhancing multi-stakeholder partnerships across industry, academia, and civil society
• monitoring progress towards a circular economic model through SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) indicators.