GNTO Launches Upcycling Project

The Greek Tourism Ministry and the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) are rationally managing their available resources by creatively reusing unutilized promotional material of the GNTO, thus saving up to 40 percent of the total cost for new material.

This innovative project is about upcycling, i.e. turning a useless object into a product of equal or higher environmental value without ever disposing of it.

According to a press release, no other national tourism body has adopted a similar practice.

Under the motto “I am a poster. Can’t you see? – Fresh and smart eco-gifts created of our old print material,” the GNTO Upcycling Project is going to involve 45.000 paper folders, 120.000 posters and 4.300 paper bags produced in 2004-2009.

This is material with no archive value and that is too outdated to be used within their current marketing campaigns, but good enough to be used as the raw material for making new promotional “products” (pens, page markers, pencil cases, post-it dispensers, bags etc.) as well as to meet the needs of Greece for promotional actions in international fairs and exhibitions.

These products include bags, CD and DVD cases, business card cases, stands for cards/papers and pencils/pens, sous-verres, paper cubes and small string paper bags with a jigsaw puzzle made from old GNTO posters.

By means of this initiative, the Tourism Ministry and the GNTO aim to utilize their inactive material in a cost-efficient and creative way, to enhance Greece’s image on the international tourism market as a country taking up innovative actions, as well as to introduce a model case-study for international tourism fairs at an environmental level.