Doubtful waste management: is Cyprus doing enough to fight illegal landfills?

Every twelvemonth nan European Union produces 2.2 cardinal tons of waste; astir 5 tons per capita. The European Union promotes prevention and re-use, followed by recycling if not possible. The last and astir harmful action is disposal.

Around 15% of EU discarded presently ends up successful landfills and their usage is heavy regulated. A 1999 Directive lays down standards to protect quality wellness and nan environment, namely aboveground water, groundwater, ungraded and air, from nan antagonistic effects of discarded collection, transport, storage, curen and disposal. Only safe and controlled landfill activities are allowed. Failure to comply results successful fines. 

The Directive limits nan stock of municipal discarded landfilled to little than 10% by 2035. Illegal landfills crossed nan EU person steadily decreased complete past years. However, nan European Commission has referred several  Member States to the Court of Justice of nan EU, and Cyprus has already been condemned for its nonaccomplishment to power forbidden dumping. 

Local NGOs successful nan Republic of Cyprus person been search and denouncing forbidden dumps for years. 

“The main consequences are for nan environment, and they are besides for quality health. All this trash leaves toxins and pollutes nature, it pollutes our groundwater, it pollutes everything,” says Natasa Ioannou, Project Leader astatine Friends of nan Earth Cyprus arsenic we locomotion done a monolithic forbidden dump adjacent Nicosia, nan country’s capital. 

Yet solutions are astatine hand, she claims. 

“You decidedly request to person a concise, organised and very well-established (disposal) infrastructure. Because if group don’t person a ‘green point’ adjacent to them, this is what is going to hap successful nan end. The 2nd solution is policing and, of course, enforcing each nan laws. When you cognize that location is thing going connected and it has been going connected for rather a agelong time, surveillance cameras request to beryllium implemented.** You besides request to springiness incentives to group to negociate their waste. It’s not always, I mean, ‘you’re doing this wrong; I’m going to springiness you a fine’. There ever has to beryllium different opportunities for information system practices.”  

Activists person helped to create an interactive representation wherever dumps are tracked successful existent time.  

“When I travel to these places and I spot these things, I consciousness anger and disappointment. I mean, this is not really our countryside should be. This is not really Cyprus should be. It’s disgusting,” says Natasa arsenic she takes america to a 2nd forbidden landfill conscionable 30 minutes distant from nan first one. “What authorities opportunity to america is that they don’t person nan resources. Then you request to find nan ways to get nan resources. Having nan aforesaid excuse twelvemonth aft twelvemonth aft year, it shows deficiency of governmental will.”  

What are Cyprus authorities doing?

A very constricted but actual consequence comes from a mini territory successful Nicosia, nan first to present nan “Pay-as-you-throw” programme. 

Encouraged by nan EU, nan strategy allows discarded fees paid by users to beryllium modulated according to nan magnitude of mixed discarded delivered to nan guidance system, explains nan district’s lawman mayor.  

“In nan first twelvemonth of nan system’s implementation, we managed 5,000 tons of waste. You make a 40% simplification successful municipal garbage,” explains Andreas Constantinou, nan district’s lawman mayor. “The roadworthy to alteration mindsets was not paved pinch roseate petals, but we invested chiefly successful nan caller generation. We entered schools and tried, done children, to alteration nan mindsets of grown-ups.” 

Other municipalities are group to travel nan illustration soon. But this falls short of nan country’s immense needs. The very time of our filming, nan European Commission sent Cyprus to nan EU Court of Justice erstwhile again, and requested much fines for its nonaccomplishment to negociate forbidden landfills. 

The Director of nan country’s Department for nan Environment meets america successful 1 of Nicosia’s 8 Green Points, wherever 8,000 tons of discarded were sorted past year.

The Government acknowledges decades-long “inertia” and “weaknesses” successful its discarded management. 

But Theodoulos Mesimeris claims things will soon improve. 

“There are much than 20 Green Points operating now successful Cyprus, and nan purpose is to person nan correct network. So different 50 specified points person been launched, arsenic good arsenic different infrastructures, specified arsenic ‘green corners’ and recycling areas, truthful that we tin supply nan correct choices for citizens and nan readiness of materials for recovery, for re-use, for recycling. It is simply a truth that nan existing infrastructure cannot meet nan requirements of nan organization framework,” he says. 

“The restoration and cleaning of nan remaining points will beryllium underway wrong nan adjacent 2 months. The nonsubjective is to cleanable Cyprus of forbidden discarded sites instantly and astatine nan aforesaid clip to person those mechanisms that will not let nan arena of forbidden dumping to hap again.” 

Cyprus’s ain authorities has acknowledged that nan costs of remediating an forbidden dump is higher than operating a lawful waste-management facility.