Tilos and the Just Go Zero Model: What It Means to Be the World’s First Zero Waste Island
Tilos and the Just Go Zero Model: What It Means to Be the World’s First Zero Waste Island
By Athanasios Polychronopoulos, Owner and CEO of Polygreen Group of Companies
Zero waste is often treated as an aspiration — a goal announced, a pilot launched, a promise deferred. In reality, most initiatives struggle when confronted with real-world conditions: fragmented governance, limited infrastructure, seasonal population surges, and everyday human behaviour.
Tilos, a small island in Greece’s Aegean Sea with fewer than 1,000 permanent residents, changed that narrative. Through the Just Go Zero model implemented by Polygreen, Tilos became the world’s first certified Zero Waste Island — meaning that no waste produced on the island ends up in landfill. The model was later featured by the World Economic Forum as a real-world example of circular economy systems moving from concept to execution. This achievement was not symbolic. It was systemic.
What Does Zero Waste Mean in Practice?
What Does Zero Waste Mean in Practice?
On Tilos, zero waste means that all waste produced is collected, measured, and managed in a fully circular way, eliminating its environmental footprint.
In practical terms, this means that waste is prevented, reused, recycled, or composted, so landfills are eliminated as a destination and residual waste is reduced to the absolute minimum.
Zero waste is not about perfection. It is about designing a system where disposal is no longer the default outcome.
How We Make It Happen: A System, Not a Campaign
How We Make It Happen: A System, Not a Campaign
The transformation of Tilos began with governance, not technology. Local authorities aligned waste management with Greece’s national circular economy objectives and EU waste directives, creating the regulatory backbone needed to move beyond short-term pilots.
The Just Go Zero system operates through sorting at source, supported by clear guidance and equipment; door-to-door collection, replacing public dustbins; local composting, recycling, and reuse; modern technology, including data tracking and digital tools; and full community participation, with households, businesses, and visitors acting as allies rather than exceptions.
The old landfill was decommissioned and transformed into a Centre for Circular Innovation, where materials are sorted, processed, composted, reused, or prepared for further recovery.
Within the first year, the results were independently verified: more than 90% diversion from landfill, over 80% reduction in landfilled waste volumes, and near-elimination of uncontrolled dumping.
This was not achieved through enforcement alone. It was achieved through system design that made the right behaviour the easiest behaviour.
Behavioural Change: Designing for Real People
Behavioural Change: Designing for Real People
Zero waste does not work without people. On Tilos, behavioural change was designed into daily life.
Residents, businesses, and visitors were supported through simple, consistent sorting instructions, that included unified visual language across the island and continuous engagement and feedback. Digital tools, including the Just Go Zero app, provided real-time information on recycling performance.
Tourism, often cited as a barrier, became part of the solution. Visitors adapted quickly because the system was intuitive, visible, and normalised. The result was not compliance, but collective ownership.
Why It Matters — Beyond the Island
Why It Matters — Beyond the Island
The impact of zero waste on Tilos extended beyond environmental performance. The system created environmental benefits through reduced pollution and emissions, social benefits through participation, awareness, and quality of life, as well as economic benefits through local jobs, reduced waste costs, and sustainable tourism.
More importantly, it proved a critical point: if zero waste can work on a small, remote island with seasonal tourism, it can work anywhere.
From Island to City: A Scalable Model
From Island to City: A Scalable Model
Tilos was never intended to be a one-off success. The Just Go Zero model is designed as an algorithmic system adaptable to islands, cities, events, corporate campuses, and entire regions.
The logic remains consistent: align policy and governance, design infrastructure for local conditions, embed behaviour through system design, measure outcomes transparently and scale what works.
This is why the model has been applied beyond Tilos and recognised on global platforms such as the World Economic Forum.
From Waste Management to Systems Leadership
From Waste Management to Systems Leadership
Tilos represents a shift in how sustainability should be delivered. Zero waste is not about bins. It is about systems leadership — aligning policy, infrastructure, people, and data into a single operating model.
The world’s first Zero Waste Island is not the end goal. It is the first step toward a zero-waste world that is more viable, more resilient, and more harmonious.