WWF report slams waste policy
Greece’s waste treatment policy is wasteful, polluting and is expected to continue for decades. This damning verdict is contained in a report by the Greek chapter of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released on Tuesday.
The state has taken deliberate decisions to privilege waste incineration at the expense of other methods, such as conservation, recycling and reuse. “There is no effort to change bad practices,” said Achilleas Plitharas, footprint leader at WWF Hellas.
In the past 25 years, waste production has increased 75%, with 80% of refuse still ending up at open-air pits, the WWF report notes.
The European Commission has already issued three warnings to Greece over its waste management policy, while its regional policy directorate-general has condemned a large public/private sector project in the Peloponnese that would supposedly improve waste management in the region.
The report calls out Greece for its “inexplicable insistence” on waste incineration, which produces a lot of greenhouse gases, and on its failure to implement recycling to any meaningful degree. In this regard, end-users must share a lot of the blame: at least 40% of the content placed in the recycling blue bins is non-recyclable.
On top of that, Greece is slow in absorbing available European Union funds: fully 64% of waste management projects under way have zero absorption.
