Filenews 18 July 2022 - by Angelos Nicolaou
Organic waste has the largest contribution to municipal solid waste and accounts for 42% of mixed municipal waste. In an effort to divert this flow of waste away from landfills and ensure their proper treatment (such as composting or anaerobic digestion), measures are being promoted nationwide with their separate collection in municipalities and communities.
In view of the regulations on the management of municipal waste by the Local Administration Authorities, which provide for the mandatory separate collection of organic waste from July 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment has set as a priority the implementation of projects to strengthen the infrastructure for the management of organic waste. In this context, the installation of composters in mountainous and remote areas will help to implement the obligations arising from the regulations and achieve the goal of diversion of organic waste from landfills and will allow the reuse of the produced compost as fertilizer at local level.
To this end, the Ministry will proceed with the implementation of a project amounting to €7 million under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, which concerns the supply and installation of 50 small and medium-sized community composters and 2,000 home composters in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas in all provinces. The 50 community composters will be installed in areas with controlled access, where community citizens will have access to deposit their organic waste. The compost produced will be able to be exploited by the community for public spaces and agriculture. Composters are safe and easy to use, do not produce odours and will reduce organic waste by 90%. The 2,000 home composters will be given to homes and schools to collect organic waste at source, with the aim of reducing organic waste in mixed waste.
Regarding the separate collection of the remaining municipal waste streams and with the aim of expanding the recycling network to more points in Cyprus, the Ministry of Environment will proceed with the supply and installation of 50 green pavilions in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas in all provinces, with a total budget of €3.5 million.
The green kiosks will function as small-scale recycling centres that will attract locals and surrounding businesses to separate and transport their recyclable waste. There will be collected the usual recyclable materials, such as paper, plastic, glass, and metal, small electrical appliances, batteries, lamps, clothes, books, toys and other small household items. All of the above will be collected, separated and stored in the green kiosks and in the end they will be transported to the nearest recyclable materials management units.
Green pavilions will be installed in central locations within the communities. Citizens served by the green kiosks will have a personal card/ID card with which the waste they transported to the green kiosks will be recorded.
At the same time, in order to promote reuse, a project of €4 million will be implemented for the construction and operation of two reuse and repair centers, as well as the creation of a support network of stores. The centres will be built at strategic points in Cyprus, so that they can serve all five districts, and will function as points for the collection and collection of objects. These centres will have a reception area, an exchange area, a warehouse, a repair point and a second-hand shop. The aim is to create organized spaces for the collection, classification, repair and reuse of large household items, such as furniture and mattresses, electrical appliances, clothes, books, toys, etc. The citizen will be able to transport his waste to these centres so that it can be reused by other citizens who may need it. Shops selling second-hand goods will exist in urban areas, creating a network where citizens will be able to buy the second-hand items collected in the centres.
BY IDENTITY
In two years the big change
The collection of organics from our kitchen and their use either for the acquisition of compote, or for their placement in bins for the purpose of collection and use in the production of biogas is a big deal. There are already households that acquire their own compote and use it in their gardens to improve the quality of the soil and are exempt from the use of synthetic fertilizers that burden the environment. On the other hand, when organics are recycled to obtain biogas, it is a kind of renewable energy source that contributes substantially to the reduction of environmental pollution. Let us hope that two years from now we are all ready for this great change in our daily lives.
