Reflections from Tilos, The Green Island
View of NW Tilos and Eristos Bay
By Dan Spencer
In 2018, I had a sabbatical leave from the University of Montana, and my husband Pat Burke and I wanted to focus our time learning about different constructive responses to climate change and environmental stress. Both of us have been involved in ecological restoration as one response to climate change, and we were aware of ongoing efforts in the Mediterranean countries to respond to a heating and drying region.
In looking at possible places to visit, we came across the small Greek island of Tilos, just north of Rhodes in the Dodecanese islands off the west coast of Turkey. Known as “The Green Island” for its decades-long efforts at protecting its habitat for migratory birds and its successful efforts to be a Natura 2000 Reserve, in 2017 Tilos made the commitment to become the Mediterranean’s first completely energy self-sufficient island in terms of electricity generation. We came across a Youtube video, “Tilos, The Renewable Island,” where the mayor of Tilos, Maria Kamma-Aliferi, talked about how Tilos had made this commitment. At the same time, Greece was being flooded by refugees from Syria, who were concentrated in several camps on some of the main islands. Tilos decided to welcome several Syrian refugee families to the island and work to integrate them into the local economy. We decided this was a place we needed to see for ourselves, and learn how Tilos had made this environmental and cultural transformation.
New wind turbine on Tilos
We arrived on Tilos in October, 2018, just as the new wind turbine was being finished and ready to be put online. Prior to 2019, Tilos was dependent on an undersea electrical cable connected to the nearby island of Kos, where electricity is generated by burning diesel. The system was unreliable, and Tilos was often subjected to power outages, forcing it to rely on local generators, that only increased its carbon footprint.
Photovoltaic Park on Tilos
To move toward sustainable energy development, Tilos applied for and received European Union funding to start The Tilos Project (“Technology Innovation for the Local Scale”), whose goal was to build a “prototype hybrid system for electricity production and storage consisting of a medium-scale wind turbine of 800 kW, a small-scale photovoltaic park of 160 kW and a battery storage system of 2.4 MWh useful energy capacity” that would in turn become a model to disseminate small-scale sustainable energy project to other island communities.
We were curious to know why the people of Tilos had been willing to take this bold and innovative step. We interviewed both Mayor Maria Kamma-Aliferis, and Stathis Kontos, Municipal Advisor to the project.
Pat Burke & Dan Spencer with Tilos Mayor, Maria Kamma-Aliferis
Dan Spencer with Stathis Kontos
The roots of Tilos’s environmental transformation go back to the 1980s, when Tilos’s population had dwindled to under 300, and the island was in danger of losing its school. A visionary mayor and the island’s physician, Tasos Aliferis, convinced his fellow Tilians, that Tilos’s future lay in developing an environmental consciousness and set of sustainable practices. The first step was banning bird hunting on the island in 1993, which allowed the population of more than 120 resident and migratory bird species to recover. Tilos then joined the Natura 2000 Network of protected areas in Europe, and set aside virtually the entire island as a protected nature reserve. This helped to develop Tilos’s reputation as a green tourist destination for nature lovers, and its economy and population began to recover. In the meantime, both native Tilians and visitors developed and ecological perspective determined to protect the island’s natural habitats and environments.
In the nearly four years since we were on Tilos, the island has received widespread international recognition for its efforts in sustainable energy, including several awards from the European Union. Most recently Tilos was awarded a 100,000 Euro EU RESponsible Island Prize for its successes with sustainable energy.
Pat and I had been trying to get back to Tilos for three years, but COVID and other obstacles intervened. We were finally able to return in early June, 2022, eager to see what changes have occurred. One change was immediately obvious: Tilos has replaced its diesel public cross-island bus with a stunning, large electric bus, and the municipal vehicles for the island are all electric, recharging at any of three recharging stations.
New municipal electric vehicle at charging station
New electronic public bus for the island
Just Go Zero Waste Sorting Bins
But we were also struck by new solid waste sorting bins and collection sites seemingly everywhere, with the slogan, “Just Go Zero!” Our second day back we saw Just Go Zero vehicles and workers collecting all of Tilos’s trash and beginning to sort it at a new Recycling Center on the island.
Just Go Zero workers collecting waste
Intrigued, we searched the web and found that in the past year, Tilos has started an ambitious Zero Waste project to develop a circular economy on the island, and drastically reduce waste and increase recycling. In fact, just a few weeks prior to our arrival, Tilos had hosted the Greek Minister of Environment and Energy, Costas Skrekas, the Minister of State, Akis Skertsos, and the Secretary General of Waste Management Coordination of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, Manolis Grafakos to view and formally inaugurate the Just Grow Zero program, proclaiming Tilos with “the highest rate of recycling in the world” with over 86% of its waste now recycled.
Four years earlier we had been very concerned with the amount of single-use plastic we saw on Tilos, and we had visited Chyta, the island’s landfill – a depressing site of piles of plastic only partially contained by fencing, and blowing across the otherwise beautiful Tilian landscape.
At the old Tilos Landfill, October 2018
Plastic garbage on Tilos outside old landfill
Hearing that the landfill had been replaced by a new recycling center, we hiked across the island to the former landfill site and were stunned to see a clean and efficient recycling plant with sophisticated processing machinery had taken its place.
New waste Recycling Center with trucks bringing waste, on site of old landfill
Now even more intrigued, we contacted the manager of the recycling center, Valantis Vitalis, and introduced ourselves. Valantis agreed to sit for an interview with us, and filled us in on the work of his company, Polygreen, coordinating the Tilos zero waste program, and dedicated to developing circular economy solutions for modern economies. Founded by CEO Athanasios Polychronos, Polygreen is a private venture dedicated to building a circular economy, sustainable waste management, and zero waste by developing a model for island economies, and then be able to market it. Tilos was chosen for a two-year pilot project, with all expenses being paid by Polygreen. The Just Go Zero Tilos project employs 14 people on Tilos, 13 of them Tilian residents. Begun in June 2021, to date the project now recycles 86% of the islands nonorganic and organic waste, removing the other 14% and using it in energy production in Athens. Recycled waste is sent to a Polygreen recycling facility in Piraeus, outside Athens, where it is processed into recyclable plastic products. Organic wastes are composted and the fertilizer given to Tilians for use in gardens and fields.
Valantis Vitalis, Recycling Plant Coordinator, Polygreen, Just Go Zero Tilos
We asked Valantis if it was difficult to change Tilian mindsets about managing waste and to get buy-in for the project. “That was the easiest part,” he replied. “The people of Tilos are used to doing things ecologically,” and most quickly agreed to participate. Valantis counts as the most import success of the program as gaining the trust of Tilians. “I think we gained the trust of the locals – that is the most important success. They now want to contribute to the program.”
Going forward, the primary challenge is reducing inputs to the island, especially plastics – and that will take time. The hope is that after the pilot project ends in 2023, Tilos will be ready to take over and operate the program – though that will take support from the Greek government to sustain it. But given Tilos’s determination and record in other environmental areas, Tilos may well be on its way to becoming the Mediterranean’s first circular economy and zero waste community. They certainly have inspired Pat and me for what is possible when a group of citizens decide to work together to make sustainable environmental change happen – and we can do this too, in Montana!
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Dan Spencer is recently retired as Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. Pat Burke has taught environmental and climate change ethics in the Davidson Honors College and Philosophy. Both are committed building ecologically and environmentally sustainable societies in the face of global challenges of climate change, loss of biodiversity, and climate and social injustice.
