Cellock Participates in the International SUPMed Project as the Technology Enabler
“Six partners in Cyprus, Malta and Greece come together through the project SUPMed aiming to reduce the consumption, disposal and impacts of Single Use Plastics (SUP) in the tourism sector”
In July 2020, the project titled “Reducing the Consumption and Disposal of Single-use Plastics in the Tourism Industry in Cyprus, Greece and Malta”, also known as “SUPMed”, was launched. The project runs until June 2023, with a total budget of €1,279,405.00. The six project partners participating in the project are Aspon Consulting Ltd as the Lead Partner (CY), Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GR), Anelixis Development Consultants S.A. (GR), Cellock Ltd (CY), AIS Environment (MT) and the Cyprus Hotel Association (CY). The project consortium aims to reduce the consumption, disposal and impacts of SUP in the tourism sector in these three regions, in line with EU Directive 2019/904 on the reduction of the impacts of plastic products.
Cellock is one of the strategic partners of this project and has undertaken the development of the Decision Support Tool (DST), an instrumental element for the success of this project. Cellock was chosen due to its vast knowhow in designing complex, custom, software solutions, with the use of Artificial Intelligence and Prediction Systems.
Each tourist establishment will have access to their own dashboard of the DST. They will be able to input data about their existing quantities, types and specifications of SUP items they use, which will be already pre-loaded into the DST database. Cellock’s DST, will analyse the data based on technical specifications of each SUP material and outputs detailed, numerical and visual reports for each user. With the use of the built-in Recommendation System, the software suggests actionable recommendations, that can save the user money and reduce the environmental footprint of that establishment. The tourist establishments can effortlessly replace Single-Used Plastics by switching to environmentally friendlier, cost-effective and readily available market alternatives to commonly used SUPs, enabling them to make the switch with minimum effort.
Through this project, the partners will support samples of coastal tourist establishments in Cyprus, Malta and Greece (Crete) via pilots to move to sustainable resource-efficient business models that will identify and replace commonly used SUP with environmentally friendlier, readily available and affordable alternatives. The pilot samples will be supported in phasing out and replacing SUP via a bespoke free web-based decision support tool (DST) that will be developed. The DST will present viable and available alternatives to the most commonly used SUP, taking into consideration the cost and environmental impacts of each alternative across its life-cycle.
Following the completion of the pilot in each of the three regions, best practise guides will be developed that will present the findings of the pilots, the impacts of plastic waste on human health and the environment, how to reduce SUP in the tourism and other sectors and what envirionmentally friendlier and affordable alternatives are available. These guides will be disseminated to SMEs, NGOs, tourist establishments and other relevant stakeholders in the three regions and across Europe, as an additional support tool in replacing SUPs.
The project “Reducing the Consumption and Disposal of Single-use Plastics in the Tourism Industry in Cyprus, Greece and Malta” is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.
To keep up to date with the project, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and visit the project website.
The SUPMed project is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation