Ogyre, the Italian startup that implemented the global fishing for litter platform to clean the oceans of marine litter with the help of local fishermen, continues to grow and expands its reach in Europe with the launch of operations in Greece. The new community of 24 new fishermen in Corfu joins groups already active in Italy, Brazil and Indonesia. These teams are already engaged in collecting an estimated monthly average of more than 20,000 kg of marine litter, equivalent to 37 containers of plastic bottles.

"Opening a port in Greece represents a significant step forward for Ogyre, being the first European country, after Italy, to extend our fishing for litter initiative. This new expansion allows us to make our presence in the area more active and to inspire similar actions in other parts of Europe," says Andrea Faldella, co-founder of Ogyre.

The port of Corfu will therefore join the ports where it will be possible to recycle waste, along with Brazil and Indonesia. In these two countries, local partners identify and separate the main types of recyclable waste (PET, rigid plastic, glass and metal) to send them to recycling companies.

PET plastics account for about 10% of waste destined for recycling in Brazil, while in Indonesia they make up as much as 76%. Mainly made up of bottles, PET plastics are sent to processing plants to be converted into pellets or transformed into various finished products.

"With our debut in Greece, we aim to recycle 50% of the waste collected. This ambitious goal will not only improve our recycling metrics, but brings us closer to the second phase of the Ogyre project: the transformation of collected waste into new resources," underlines Antonio Augeri, co-founder of Ogyre.

Launching in Greece is a new step towards the ambitious goal of collecting 1.5 million kilos of marine litter from the seas by the end of 2024. In just three years, Ogyre has already collected over 400,000 kg of marine litter, involving more than a hundred companies in sustainability and social responsibility projects, including Luna Rossa, Prada, Pirelli, Corona, Yoox, Panerai and Unipol Group.