Andros landfill to close by June, says mayor

An illegal landfill on Andros, which has led to large amounts of trash floating in the Aegean, will close in June, the Cycladic island?s mayor said on Thursday.

Speaking to Skai TV, Yiannis Glynos said that municipal trash trucks would stop dumping rubbish at the landfill by the middle of May and that it would be completely shut down by June.

He said that authorities would launch a study to find a location for a legal landfill. Glynos added that he hoped legal objections would not hold up the project.

The two sites designated for landfills over the past few years were rejected following opposition by conservationists. However sources at the Environment Ministry indicated that both projects failed to get off the ground due to objections by residents.

Hundreds of tons of trash that fell from the Andros landfill into the sea in February was found to have washed up as far south as the Dodecanese earlier this month.