Recycling falling short

Greece is processing only a quarter of its recyclable materials due to inadequate recycling infrastructure and ineffective public awareness campaigns, a senior waste management expert said yesterday. Out of a million tons of recyclable materials produced in Greece every year, only 266,623 tons are actually recycled, according to the Hellenic Recovery Recycling Corporation (HERRCO). This means Greece is seriously lagging a European Union target dictating that member states process 60 percent of their recyclable materials by 2011. Citizens of Athens and Thessaloniki are more indifferent to recycling than their provincial counterparts, according to HERRCO’s president, Yiannis Razis. In the case of Athenians, he said, public awareness campaigns had not achieved the required response. But he also noted that the necessary infrastructure for processing recyclable waste was not in place in the capital. Three sorting centers are not enough, according to Razis, who said at least five fully functioning units are needed. Also the trucks transporting recyclable goods to these centers need to conduct more than five runs a day if a network of 1,600 dumpsters is to be properly serviced, he said. The fact that the previous municipal authorities decided to run a recycling program independent of HERRCO’s and using different dumpsters only served to create confusion among citizens and discourage them from embracing recycling, Razis added. According to HERRCO, only aluminium and paper are processed domestically. All plastic is exported, chiefly to China, and a large proportion of glass is also sent abroad as there are not enough specialist processing centers for these materials. But there has been some progress, according to figures made public by HERRCO yesterday. Last year, the corporation cooperated with a total of 337 municipalities across the country. HERRCO invested some -9.1 million in its operations last year, maintaining 25,000 recycling dumpsters and 12 sorting centers across the country. The corporation was set up in 2003, with the Environment Ministry’s approval, by the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities and an umbrella group of recycling organizations.