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.

This article was previously published at ekathimerini.com.