Filenews 22 November 2024 - by Angelos Nicolaou
Cyprus has failed to meet its targets for the reuse and recycling of municipal waste and may not meet both the 55% recycling target for municipal waste and the 65% recycling target for total packaging waste. The above are recorded in a reply letter dated . 12/11/2024 to citizen by Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, Director for Circular Economy in the Commission's Environment Directorate. A citizen complained to the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, who was additionally assigned responsibilities for the environment, oceans and fisheries from his portfolio.
The complaint concerns waste management in Cyprus. The Commission is working on rules to ensure that waste is turned into recoverable resources that could be used for the transition to a cleaner, climate-neutral and circular economy.
As part of the implementation of the Waste Framework Directive, the Commission issued an early warning report on Member States' progress towards the 2025 preparing for re-use and recycling target for municipal waste, recycling targets for packaging waste by 2025 and landfill reduction targets for municipal waste by 2035.
According to the report, the recycling rate of municipal solid waste in Cyprus in 2020 was 16.8%, well behind the EU target for 2025 of 55%. Regarding the recycling rate of packaging waste in Cyprus in 2020 it was 59.9%, compared to the 65% target set by the EU for 2025. The report also concludes that the distance from the target of reducing municipal landfilling in 2035 is worrying. In particular, the landfill rate for municipal waste in 2020 was 67%, when the EU target for 2035 has been set at 10%. The report also concluded that the number of infrastructures and systems for separate collection and treatment of bio-waste is insufficient.
The Early Warning Report for Cyprus recommends extending separate collection of waste at source to all segments of the population and improving citizens' awareness of waste separation and waste prevention. Implement economic measures, such as introducing pay-as-you-throw schemes and introducing a landfill tax to incentivise separate collection at source and minimise waste landfilled.
In his reply, the Director for Circular Economy at the Commission's Environment Directorate thanked the citizen for bringing to the attention of the Commission the issue of poor waste management in Cyprus. The Commission is closely monitoring the waste management situation in Cyprus and has already launched infringement procedures to this end (case 2021/2217).
