On Saturday, 12th of May 2018, the Municipality of Saranda organized the Atypical Event: “Reduce the waste! Reuse shells as natural fertilizer!“, one of the activities of the awareness campaign of the Consume-less project, co- financed by ERDF and IPA in the frame of Interreg Med Programme 2014-2020.The event took place in Ksamil on the occasion of the local Mussels’ Fest organized annually by the Municipality of Saranda.

The motivation for the organization of this kind of event derived from the results of ETIS survey conducted with facilities applicants of the Consume-less label. The results showed
that the issues of reducing the adverse effects of climate change were less known to businesses and although there is a wide range of measures to be taken, the level of
awareness is low.

The largest lake mussel plantations in the country are in this lake and the production is marketed inside and outside the country. Mussels are in high demand by visitors and locals. Many families live from mussel production, but little has been done so far to exploit this product beyond the gastronomic aspect.

The event was focused exactly on this aspect, bringing to attention the values of mussel shells as fertilizers of important nutrient values for agricultural land.
Turning mussel shells into sand is a very valuable and atypical indicative action for the community as it reduces organic waste by turning them into fertilizers thus giving visitors, businesses and citizens a concrete example to implement in the future.

As a next step of the event a long list of reusable items that can go for the same purpose rather than garbage collection are added to the mussels.
To promote this initiative, a stand was set up within the festival territory and a dedicated banner was produced. The message written on the banner was short and clear “Reuse shells as natural fertilizer!”

Further shell smashing was demonstrating and the product was put in dedicated sachets labeled as: Organic fertilizer for your garden.
The show was visited by many citizens and many foreign tourists who were familiar with the project and gave the message to join the "I am a Consume- less traveler"
Also, the stand had representatives from the local and central authorities (Ministry of Tourism and Environment), as well as by the Minister of Energy who congratulated the
project.

Visitors, citizens, business representatives and tourism service providers (hotels and
restaurants) applicants in the Consume- less Label etc. took part in the event.