Cyprus Mail 22 August 2019
By Gina Agapiou
At an estimated 637kg per person, Cyprus generates the second largest amount of municipal waste in the European Union, a Eurostat report said on Thursday.
The average for the European Union in 2017 was 486kg of waste per person.
Denmark tops the list with 781kg, followed by Cyprus at 637kg and Germany with 633kg per person.
The EU member states that generated the least municipal waste in 2017 were Romania with 272kg per person, Poland with 315kg and Czechia 344kg.
Denmark’s first place is, however, a source of pride as 80 per cent of the waste produced is used to generate power. Germany in third place has high recycling rates and aims to turn their waste management into a resource management as well. Neither of the above applies to Cyprus.
The EU amount of municipal waste generated per person has remained reasonably stable since 2014. The peak was in 2002 when the average was 525kg per person in the EU.
According to Eurostat municipal waste is the waste that is collected by the municipal authorities, or directly by the private sector. The bulk of the waste stream originates from households, and excludes waste from municipal sewage networks and municipal construction and demolition waste.
