We developed the Eco Boost youth exchange because we saw that there was a huge lack of environmental awareness and education in Greece, especially among young people. Environmental education in Greece was a long-lasting, underrated societal need that was pressing and needed to be urgently addressed. Our system of environmental education, aimed at children and youth as well as the general public, markedly fell behind the needs of Greek society and the standards of European countries. This fact also influenced the further development of basic environmental literacy and pro-environmental behavior. Environmental awareness among Greek citizens, especially youth, was insufficient and did not lead to behavioral changes or the establishment of proper values. If these changes and values were not adopted early, the mindset of these young individuals remained the same throughout their lives. This behavior was then further transferred to the next generations. These facts, which demonstrated the lack of environmental education and awareness in Greece, led to one of the reasons why we wanted to carry out this project. Another reason was related to the topic of the project: waste reduction and recycling. With our project, we focused on reducing waste and promoting recycling. Waste treatment and processing posed one of the greatest challenges to the natural environment in Greece, based on international comparison. Greece lagged behind other developed countries the most in waste treatment. The recycling rate of municipal waste in Greece was among the lowest in Europe. Additionally, the high rate of landfilling remained a long-term issue in our country. Greece repeatedly lagged in waste separation and recycling. According to Eurostat, the recycling rate of municipal waste in Greece was 18%, placing it third from the bottom! When compared to the EU average recycling rate of 46%, Greece’s rate represented less than half. According to Eurostat data from 2019 (the most recent available), Greece generated 5.1 million tonnes of municipal waste. Of that total, only 0.9 million tonnes (18%) were recycled, while 4.1 million tonnes (82%) were landfilled or incinerated without energy recovery. In terms of waste per capita, Greece generated 469 kg of municipal waste per capita in 2019, lower than the EU average of 502 kg per capita. However, the per capita recycling rate in Greece was only 78 kg, also lower than the EU average of 114 kg per capita. Most municipal waste in Greece was either landfilled or incinerated without energy recovery. In 2019, Eurostat data showed that 74% of municipal waste in Greece was landfilled, 8% was incinerated without energy recovery, and 18% was recycled. It was worth noting that the recycling rate in Greece was relatively low compared to some other EU countries. However, the Greek government set a goal to increase the recycling rate to 50% by 2025 and implemented various policies and initiatives to achieve this goal. At the same time, European legislation mandated that member states recycle at least 50% of municipal waste. Moreover, according to the European Union’s goals, by 2030, the recycling rate of solid municipal waste should reach 70%, and recycling of packaging waste should reach 80% (Enviroportal source). If Greece wanted to achieve these percentages, it needed to exert maximum efforts in multiple ways, especially through environmental awareness and education. Our project supported these goals by setting the following objectives: - Increased environmental awareness among participants and developed their competencies. - Educated young people about recycling, waste reduction, and preservation of the natural environment. - Made young people aware of factors that positively and negatively impacted the environment. - Motivated young people to become more active and engaged in addressing environmental issues. - Helped participants and the public to be more considerate toward the environment (showed them how they could contribute). - Familiarized participants with proper waste separation and recycling practices (taught them how to correctly separate trash). - Enhanced creativity skills. - Created awareness of different environmental situations in selected countries among participants. - Presented and exchanged cultures. - Created awareness about Erasmus+ projects among participants and the public.