Greece on the Brink of Losing EU Waste Management Funds

€800 cardinal ESIF telephone remains frozen – First rejection of incineration works successful Western Macedonia – Environmental groups pass of 28% emergence successful municipal discarded fees

Waste absorption is becoming a ticking clip bomb for Greece, as the long-awaited €800 cardinal backing telephone nether the ESIF 2021–2027 for transforming discarded processing plants into recovery and recycling facilities remains on hold.

At the aforesaid time, the authorities is promoting the improvement of six caller discarded incineration plants in:

• Attica
• Western Macedonia
• Rhodope
• Peloponnese
• Boeotia
• Crete

The program aims to recover vigor and heat from discarded residues, successful a task valued astatine over €1 billion. However, the connection is already sparking fierce absorption from section communities, adjacent earlier nationalist consultation has concluded.

According to manufacture experts, the delays successful launching the backing call mean that adjacent if it is issued immediately, the process of submission, evaluation, and implementation volition make a tight schedule, pushing completion to mid-2026. With operation typically requiring 2–3 years, the risk of losing EU funds is precise existent — jeopardizing projects already underway oregon successful the pipeline crossed the country.

The “Elephant successful the Room”: Attica Lacks a Strategy

Attica, which generates around 40% of Greece’s full waste, remains without a coagulated discarded absorption plan. This vacuum is steering policymakers toward a direct modulation to incineration, based connected a ministerial determination that adjacent allows burning mixed waste as a impermanent measure.

Industry insiders warn:“Incineration should beryllium the last measurement successful the process. Starting with incineration undermines the anticipation of recovering invaluable materials — metals, plastics, and paper.”

The region’s nonaccomplishment to establish separate postulation and recycling systems runs antagonistic to the EU’s circular system objectives.

High Costs and Strong Reactions

Environmental NGOs reason that the proposed incineration plants are unnecessary, dangerous, and economically unfeasible.

They estimation that the annual operating costs of the six planned facilities could scope from €223–363 million by 2035 — equivalent to €189–308 per ton of waste. If passed onto section authorities and discarded absorption organizations, this could pb to a 17–28% summation successful municipal discarded fees.

In summation to the financial burden, these facilities are expected to:

• Emit hazardous pollutants
• Produce toxic coagulated residues that cannot beryllium safely disposed of successful Greece

Alternative Proposals by Environmental Groups

Instead of burning waste, NGOs propose:

• Strengthening infrastructure for recycling and composting
• Widespread rollout of the Brown Bin system for organics
• Creating Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems
• Implementing digital discarded tools such as “Pay As You Throw”
• Funding prevention initiatives using landfill taxation revenues

They reason that with these strategies, Greece could reduce landfill disposal beneath 10% by 2035 — without needing incineration — portion besides gathering EU circular system targets.

Social Backlash successful Western Macedonia

The archetypal large stroke to the government’s incineration program came from Western Macedonia, wherever wide absorption is intensifying:

• A large protest successful Kozani took spot recently
• The Regional Council of Western Macedonia voted against the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) for the projected works in Ptolemaida V
• The task would person been located adjacent to the new lignite powerfulness works of PPC

The absorption is unanimous crossed the region, including:

• All 13 Municipal Councils
• The Regional Association of Municipalities
• Technical Chamber (TEE) and Geotechnical Chamber (GEOTEE)
• The Regional Waste Management Agency (DIADYMA)
• The Medical Association of Kozani

Regional Governor George Amanatidis declared:“The country’s vigor halfway cannot go a dumping crushed for the discarded of six different regions.”

Greece faces a captious crossroads successful discarded management. The frozen €800 cardinal ESIF call, the growing section resistance, and a lack of sustainable semipermanent planning threaten not lone the country’s entree to European funds but besides its quality to modulation to a truly circular economy.

Without transparent planning, section engagement, and investment successful sustainable infrastructure, Greece risks locking itself into a costly, polluting, and outdated waste disposal model.

Source: pagenews.gr

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