Global innovation from Greek table tennis in the Panhellenic Men’s-Women’s Championship

The Hellenic Table Tennis Philatelic Federation in collaboration with the Mediterra Institute has taken a unique action to deal with the environmental pollution created by the damaged ping pong balls after each training session and matches, which are usually thrown in the common waste and only some times in simple bins for recycling: In the upcoming Panhellenic men’s-women’s championship the winners’ cups and medals will be “printed” entirely on 3D printers with the material from the damaged balls of the sports clubs participating in the Mediterra Institute’s recycling program!

For two years about thousands of broken table tennis balls (abs plastic) from dozens of sports clubs in Greece and Cyprus have been collected locally and Mediterra takes care of their free collection. At the same time, the sports clubs also receive three fruit-bearing olive trees each time, which they plant in places they wish.

In early 2024, Mediterra presented at the Federation’s annual celebration the first key fob, which was a mini ping pong racket made entirely of broken balls. The balls were melted, turned into filament for 3d printers and with this method, “returned to life” in the form of a key ring. In fact, the first 2 keyrings printed on a 3d printer were handed over to the general secretary of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Manolis Kolymbadis, and to the president of the Hellenic Table Tennis Federation, Konstantinos Papageorgiou.

The big step, global originality and symbolism

Salamina will host the final phase of the Panhellenic men’s and women’s championships on March 22-24, to highlight the top sportsmen and women for 2024. So in this event, for the first time in the history of the sport, the cups and medals of the winners will be manufactured or rather – to be more correct – “printed” entirely on 3D printers and ABS will be used as material from the damaged balls of the sports clubs participating in the Mediterra Institute recycling program!

The effort, the persistence in training, the fatigue, the unceasing effort of athletes and coaches, as well as the thousands of ping pong balls used over the years to create a champion and a champion, turn into something globally unique! All those countless hours of practice and competition turn into a unique prize that is crafted from the very heart of table tennis. The ball. What he “chases” in every match, the athlete, this same comes and becomes his prize, thus symbolizing in the ideal way not only the real recycling of the material but also the possibility that the very ball you played will accompany you for always and remind you of everything you have achieved both as an athlete and as a person.

*Please note that the transport company Transcombi Express Salonica transports all damaged balls from all over Greece to Thessaloniki. Also, the Platotechniki Kothros Grigoris company covered the printing costs of all the awards.