Festering ecological wound on Andros set to finally heal

The Aegean island of Andros is about to acquire its first landfill site, the construction and operation of which was put out to tender a few days ago following a decision by the Council of State.

It will replace the island’s illegal landfill, a portion of which crashed into the sea in 2011. The issue at hand is whether recycling will actually take place on the island.

The €9.7 million project concerns the construction of a landfill with a capacity of 100,000 tons, with a composting plant and a plant for the mechanical sorting of metal and the manual sorting of plastic from that to be composted.

The landfill on Andros has operated since the 1970s within the declared archaeological site of Strofilas, less than 300 meters from the remains of a Neolithic settlement.

The settlement is among the most important archeological discoveries of the last 25 years but that was not enough to stop planning for the landfill.