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Clever businessman in Thessaloniki found THE solution to garbage problem

Tonnes of garbage in Greece’s streets. Nasty odor. Rotting waste under the sun. Citizens are fed up. Businessmen in despair. Especially those of the food sector who see their customers running away.

In Thessaloniki, a clever entrepreneur found THE alternative solution to the problem of bursting bins and plastic bags laying around.

According to magazine Karfitsa.gr, the businessman sealed the garbage bin outside his fast food shop, carefully packed all those plastic bags with trash and rubbish in cartoon boxes and nicely arranged the waste on the pavement of Dimitriou Gounari street.

Carefully packed and nicely arranged.

People in Thessaloniki seem to be better in finding solution: mayor Yiannis Boutaris made an arrangement with striking municipality workers to allow a temporary garbage collection. 27 garbage trucks with ’emergency staff’ have been on the streets since Monday night.

However, this solution in provisional. Boutaris is still considering to hire private companies for a period of three days, as 2,000 tonnes of rotting garbage on the streets of the second largest Greek city have to be collected as soon as possible.

In Athens, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took the situation in his hands after Interior Minister Panos Skourletis failed to strike a deal with striking municipality workers.

Tsipras met a delegation of Municipality Workers’ Union POE-OTA on Tuesday morning.

The meeting took place in “positive atmosphere”, the workers’ delegation said it will discuss Tsipras’ proposals with other board members of the union. Their decision is expected later in the day.

The government proposal to hire 2,500 municipality cleaners remain, however the prime minister reportedly promised to raise the hiring age from 45 to 50 and grant better chances (point system) for hiring to those with temporary contracts.

Municipality cleaners on temporary contracts went on strike on Sunday, June 18, with the support of POE-OTA, thus hindering the garbage collection. Temporary workers demand permanent work contracts, which is not possible due to the hiring freeze in line with the bailout agreements between Greece and the international lenders.

The union has said that 10,000 people will lose their jobs.

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4 comments

  1. Tsipras took it in his hands? LOOOOL. Good PR here. The whole government is failing (also on this topic), while the country and the people suffer (what do they pay taxes and the horribly high communitiy tax anyway?).

    Boutaris and his family are getting death threats because he talks about bringing in private companies.

  2. In Australia we have
    1. a bin for rubbish that is destined for the tip / land fill.
    2. a recycle bin for paper – cardboard – plastic – glass – cans … crush the plastic & aluminium cans & there is plenty of room.
    3. a green bin for garden waste
    4. I have a compost bin for kitchen scraps & fruit & vegetable peelings – mowed grass & leaves.
    5. I also buy wisely so as to not incur waste
    Greece need to insist that their local councils pull their finger out & manage the waste more efficiently.

  3. GREECE HAS THOUSANDS OF ASYLUM SEEKERS TWIDDLING THEIR THUMBS…WHY DON’T THEY GET THEM TO CLEAN UP THE GARBAGE..

  4. R. Davis, how kind of you to fill us in on your native land, if somewhat beside the point.

    But if you are making a comparison then you compare apples and oranges. No city in Australia has the density of any part of Athens. 80% of Athenians live in flats less than half the size of the average Australian house. Without gardens of course. Athens has recycle bins and rubbish bins and the municipal park clippings go separately to the landfill. The garbage is collected every day. The system works.

    So what is the problem? The garbage workers are on strike – THAT is the problem.