Pafos Live 22 February 2024
By the end of 2024, 67% or 2/3 of the population of Cyprus will apply the "Pay as You Throw" (PDO) system based on the calculations and timetables of the Department of Environment.
The system is implemented from the first of July and according to data from the Department of Environment, the first group of six Municipalities, which corresponds to 30% of the population, completes its studies in March and these will show the price of bags for households and apartment buildings, the prices of bins and the amount of the fixed amount that will be charged to citizens.
Municipalities will also be ready, based on these studies, to submit data on the equipment they will need (eg waste bins).
Senior Environment Department officer Eleni Constantinidou told CNA that these six municipalities are: Latsia Municipality / Lakatamia Municipality / Nicosia A Complex (Ag. Varvara), South Nicosia Municipality, Aradippou Municipality, Larnaka Municipality, East Limassol Municipality and Polemidia Municipality.
He added that in June 2024 studies are expected to be completed for the Municipalities of Nicosia, West Limassol and Limassol corresponding to 37% of the population.
Another nine clusters representing 21.5% of the population are expected to finalise the final consultation in summer-September 2024 and another 11.15% will enter a final consultation in November 2024. As Ms. Konstantinidou explained, after the end of the study/final consultation, a period of about six months is given for the implementation of the system.
Based on a presentation of a study made for the Municipality of Aradippou and preliminary data, there is an estimate of a fee of 6 cents per liter on bags, ie a ten-liter bag will cost 60 cents, a bag of 35 liters 2 euros and a bag of 56 liters 3.33 euros.
It is noted that not all municipalities have provided data based on their studies, while it is clarified that the fixed fee that the Department of Environment and the Ministry of Finance will end up with will include the garbage fee and the cleaning fee.
It should be noted that by 30 June 2024, local authorities will have to implement a system of mandatory sorting at source and separate collection of recyclable streams (paper, glass, plastic, metals), wooden and synthetic packaging, textiles, waste electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and bulky waste.
In terms of material, the targets for plastic are recycling by 50% by 2025 and 55% by 2030, for wood 25% to 30%, for ferrous metals 70% to 80%, for aluminium 50% to 60%, for glass 70% to 75% and for paper/cardboard 75% to 85%.
Based on data from the Department of Environment for 2021, per capita waste generation for was 633 kg and packaging waste recycling amounted to 65% while organic waste (green garden waste) used for compost production was at 1.2%.
The overall recycling and reuse rate (recyclable materials and organic waste) was 15.3%. Municipal waste that ended up in landfills was at 62%.
