Feb 15 - Recycling Needed to Shrink Greek Landfills
Greece is in the middle of a waste crisis, the result of 20 years of shortsighted waste management policy. The European Union has ordered Greece's 3,700 illegal landfills closed by 2008 and its government has been indicted by the European Court of Justice for toxic burning of garbage.
The New York Times Thursday ran a story by Niki Kitsantonis of the Athens Journal, detailing the dangerous conditions of Athen's only landfill:
The 250-acre landfill, said by environmental groups to be the largest in Europe, is 520 feet high from partly treated sewage, toxic hospital waste, construction rubble and household trash...The European Union's environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, who is Greek, says Greece needs to recycle more and not just throw everything into a landfill. "Greece has failed to consider the waste hierarchy principle, where priority is given to the prevention of waste, then to its reuse, recycling and recovery."
According to the BBC, Greece only recycles 8% of its waste and has been lagging in complying with European Union landfill diversion mandates.
What CAW is Doing: