Waste transfer station launched in northern Greece

Despite protests by locals, authorities on Monday officially inaugurated a much-delayed waste transfer station in the Efkarpia neighborhood of Thessaloniki, northern Greece.

The contract for the project was signed in 2010, while work on the facility began two years later. Construction was stalled amid protests by locals and Pavlos Melas Municipality officials who said the site was too close to residential areas.

Authorities Monday said that the facility, originally designed to handle 400,000 tons of waste per annum, would eventually receive between 235-240,000 tons a year.

Alternate Environment Minister Sokratis Famelos told Kathimerini that original estimates were based on growth figures forecast before Greece’s economic crisis.