Greece ranks 24th in the European Union in recycling and is second in the burial of waste, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in the Parliament on Friday.
According to the data listed by the Prime Minister on the waste management in Greece, there are 53 illegal landfills. Of them, 22 are on the islands and 21 in Peloponnese.
Municipal solid waste accounts for 15% of the country’s total waste.
Greece recycles only 15% of its waste against a target of 37%.
80% of municipal waste is buried when this figure is just 23% in the EU.
Utilizing waste for energy is just 5%.
“These rates are unacceptable,” Mitsotakis and accused SYRIZA for having “missed the train of EU funding on waste.”
The Prime Minister was responding to a question about the waste management in Peloponnese. He estimated that “all illegal landfills in Peloponnese will be closed by 2021.”
He said that the main objective of his “own waste management policy is the adoption of good practices in the circular economy so as to end up with as little waste as possible – after all their useful materials have been recovered.”
One of his target is the closure of illegal landfills, that by 2040 will not be allowed to accept more than 10% of municipal waste.”
Regarding the National Waste Management Plan with horizon in 2026, the Prime Minister said among others that the recycling and landfill targets need to be revised. “The 50% target for recovery from the source by the municipalities proved to be unrealistic. Today it is only 20%,” Mitsotaksi said adding “we strive to agree with our partners on realistic goals.”
He said that next to the green bins for mixed waste and blue bins for recycling waste, brown bins for bio-waste will be initially introduced to hotels, restaurants, hospitals and supermarkets for expired products.
PS It is really a pity we do not have compost bins and there is no such plan for it.
