Garbage collected again, but landfill under strain
Athens’s municipal workers went back to work Saturday night to collect the tons of garbage accumulated during their six-day strike, but the long-term problem of what to do with the waste still has to be resolved. Around 95 percent of garbage produced in Attica is taken to Athens’s only landfill site, in the western suburb of Ano Liosia. According to Kathimerini sources, at the current rate at which garbage is generated, there is a very real risk that the Ano Liosia site will reach saturation point before the summer. Plans for three Comprehensive Waste Management Installations (OEDA) in Attica have failed to materialize. These would be equipped with the means to sort and compost garbage, considerably reducing the volume. However, the sites for the OEDA have not yet been found, chiefly because of delays at the Public Works and Environment Ministry, the prefectures and municipalities. Proposals for such sites should be part of more general waste management plans, which should also include a series of related measures ranging from a reduction in waste production to appropriate transportation, aimed at reducing the burden on the environment and the landfill sites themselves. Despite portentous government announcements regarding the use of the already beleaguered region of Eastern Attica, there is no waste management plan for the area. As a result, there are dozens of illegal garbage dumps literally on the country’s front door, around the new international airport at Spata. Pilot recycling programs which could have considerably reduced the volume of garbage have also failed. The collection bins are often found far from their originally designated positions, and they are sometimes full to overflowing or filled with all sorts of other refuse. Instead of trying to educate the public on using them properly, the authorities appear to have given up. A major factor contributing to the bad situation at the Ano Liosia site is the long delay in opening both the recycling factory and the composting plant, which together could reduce the volume of garbage by one third. Even the equipment for compressing garbage does not always work, so that garbage is often buried without being compressed, meaning even more bulk. Emergency situation These pressing problems have led to what is being referred to as a waste management crisis in Attica, affecting not only the country’s image but the environment and public health. Attica, a prefecture soon to host the Olympic Games, is home to illegal garbage dumps, and resembles a landfill site where garbage is dumped just about anywhere; there is no comprehensive waste management plan and therefore considerable degradation of the environment. Procedures to select and approve new sites are time-consuming, as environmental considerations and the reactions of local residents have to be taken into account. The typical Greek tendency of doing things at the last minute could lead to poor choices, but as things stand now it seems that even late or faulty choices are too much to expect. The Public Works and Environment Ministry has not dared make any decisions for some time, and is unlikely to do so on the eve of local elections later this year, given the potential political cost for all concerned. That is why the issue of social security reform has been taken out of the cupboard and dusted off, and the long-awaiting taxation reform is to be presented for debate within the next few days.
