In Cyprus, she added, there was a decrease in landfill and a slight increase in recycling and composting. However, 76% of waste ends up in landfills compared to 24% which is the EU average. At the same time only 16% of the waste is recycled, including a 2% of composting. The respective EU average is 46%.Panayiotou said that, first and foremost, there should be practices and policies that will reduce solid waste through sustainable consumption.
https://in-cyprus.com/waste-management- ... missioner/As a second step, she said that sorting at the source and promoting local recycling and composting programs was the most economical, environmentally and socially friendly option.
In my opinion, waste management in Cyprus has been, and still is, a total failure. This problem should have been foreseen and tackled 10, 15, 20 years ago but nothing was done, so we now pay swingeing fines to the EU for non-compliance with directives. At the same time, the 'powers-that-be' sit on their thumbs, stating that closing a couple of landfills is a solution to the problem; not so, Nicosia does not know now what to do with their mountains of waste.
We should have done what other countries have done, most successfully, generate energy from the waste. I made such a proposal in a white paper over ten years ago but, of course, nothing was done. Now, we are stuck with mountains of waste that we haven't a clue what we can do with.
What has the Green Party or the two Green MPs done to resolve the problems? Nothing!