Filenews 9 July 2022 - by Angelos Nicolaou
Our country enters a new era, with the adoption of the Waste (Municipal Waste Management by the Local Government Authorities) Regulations by the Parliament last Thursday. The management of municipal waste is one of the biggest challenges facing the Republic of Cyprus today, due to the large volume of municipal waste generated per inhabitant per year and the comparatively low recycling rates, taking into account the need to achieve the high goals of the European Union.
With the adoption of the Regulations, the institutional framework is revised, so that the Local Government Authorities (ATA) can establish systems for sorting at source and separate collection of municipal waste and implement "Pay as You Throw" (PDO) systems, which come into force on June 30, 2024.
The Regulations introduce the following provisions for ATA:
● Elaboration, by the end of 2023, of six-year local action plans for the prevention of the creation and management of municipal waste. These plans will set out the measures to be implemented for the effective management of municipal waste and the obligations arising from the Regulations. Under the plans, ATA should start implementing mandatory separate collection and separate collection schemes for organic waste, including organic kitchen and restaurant waste and organic garden and park waste, for recyclable waste streams (paper, glass, plastics, metals, wooden and synthetic packaging), for textile products (clothing and textiles), for electrical and electronic equipment and household-type batteries and, finally, for bulky waste.
● Implementation of systems of mandatory sorting at source and separate collection of municipal waste. For streams that are subject to extended producer responsibility provisions, the Regulations include provisions concerning the cooperation of ATA with collective systems (e.g. Green Dot - packaging waste, WEEE - waste electrical and electronic equipment, AFIS -batteries, DIXA - non-packaging paper). As far as recycling is concerned, the Regulations have included a relevant provision that takes into account the difficulties faced by several communities, which are not served by the collective systems. In particular, where the coverage of a local authority by an extended producer responsibility scheme for the separate collection of specific waste streams is not justified and for the purposes of equal and inclusive access of all holders of municipal waste to separate collection systems, the measures necessary to develop appropriate support mechanisms or procedures through the provision of funding and incentives will be taken.
● Implementation of PDO systems, and consequently a new pricing policy, in order to provide financial incentives to citizens for the sorting at source and separate collection of their municipal waste. Based on the relevant Law, ATA can appoint inspectors and carry out checks for the implementation of separate collection and the PDO system. If it is found that a person violates the provisions of the regulations, a written notice of compliance is served and in case of non-compliance, the inspector has the power to make an out-of-court settlement of up to €200 for natural persons and 4000 euros for legal persons. The amount of the out-of-court settlement shall be paid into the fund of the ATA concerned.
