Filenews 8 January 2025
The total cost to the consumer from the "Pay as You Throw" scheme, including the fixed fee and the cost of purchasing the special bag, according to the feasibility studies of the Local Authorities, is estimated to be between €150-€250 per year at the beginning of the measure's implementation, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment Maria Panayiotou told the House Standing Committee on the Environment on Wednesday.
MEPs stressed the need for the immediate implementation of the measure, as it is long overdue, while expressing concerns about costs, which in many cases are higher than what each household currently pays.
In her statements after the conclusion of the Committee meeting, the Minister said that "Pay as You throw" is part of the strategy that has been prepared for holistic diversification and compliance with the targets. "It is an obligation that the Local Authorities have so that Cyprus finally stops having the negative first place in waste volumes per household. For us, sorting at source is the best method to reduce waste and that is why we are here, next to the Local Authorities to improve any problems that exist, to face the challenges and help them together with a significant financial support of €25 million to implement the system".**
Replying to a question on whether practices of other countries that do not use this system and use waste to produce energy could be examined, the Minister said that energy production from management is something that is being studied anyway and is among the provisions examined in the large feasibility study that will be announced in the coming days.
"What we have done and we are already in the process of implementation is from the private contacts we have with the various municipalities that have completed their studies, to examine their good practices and suggestions, so as to enable them to be more flexible and implement it more correctly," he said.
Replying to a question about the cost, which, as she said within the Commission, will range from €150 to €250 for each household, and which is higher than what each household currently pays, Panayiotou said that this amount is the amount shown by the feasibility studies that have been completed and submitted by the Local Authorities.
It is, he explained, "amounts that include both a fixed asset and a bag and the experts of the Department of Environment estimate that this is the initial cost that will exist, until the citizen starts and sorts properly at the source" and added that "it is a very good system to reduce our waste and its philosophy is based exactly on what its name says, that is, I pay as much as I throw."
The Minister, within the Committee, also referred to progress on contracts for the upgrading of municipal waste management infrastructure, "so that Cyprus complies with the climate and environmental targets for waste reduction, increase of recycling flows and rates and, of course, proper management". He noted that in January, the first awards will be made to the contracts that are in progress.
The President of the Commission, MP of the Green Movement, Charalambos Theopemptou, in his statements after the Commission, said that the directive on the separation of waste at source is from 2008. "We must finally start managing waste properly. No technology can separate waste as well as it does at home, and the person who separates it has the benefit."
He added that if organics, which make up 50%, and recyclables, which make up another 10-12%, are removed from a household's waste, less than half remains for the units and the system in Pentakomo and Koshi will be able to work better. He also mentioned that with organic waste we can produce energy.
As he said, the problem, as it transpired, is that for many municipalities and communities the revenue from garbage is the only one that citizens pay. He called for the system to work properly and if there are any problems to see how they will be solved.
"We had a target in 2024 from the EU to do 50% recycling. We have not succeeded. In 2025 the target becomes 55%, in 2027 it becomes 70%. If the system is not implemented, we will not achieve any of the targets. We also missed the target for organic waste and hard days are coming if we don't do it," he said.
DISY MP Prodromos Alampritis expressed his concern about the delay in implementing the program, as, as he said, "we may be called upon to pay fines as a state by the European Union."
He added that people need to be properly informed so that they know how "Pay as You Throw" is implemented, but also to see how we use organic waste to reduce the total cost that citizens will have to pay.
"We promised people that they pay as much as they throw, so whoever does proper recycling, proper waste separation will pay less, we have to make sure this happens because from the calculations so far it seems that the cost will be increased compared to the previous period," he said.
AKEL MP Nikos Kettiros, in his statements, said that there was an admission by the Minister "about broken links in the chain of the system" Pay as You Throw, which will also entail increased costs for the citizens themselves.
"We make it clear that the problem for us is not the 'pay as you throw' philosophy. The problem for us is the poor planning that has been done," he said, resulting in not doing what the authorities committed themselves to when the bill was passed, namely lower costs for citizens.
In addition, he referred to the risk that the higher cost to citizens will push some to throw their garbage into rivers, into neighbouring communities. Referring to the example of Aglantzia, he said that while in the municipality the volume of garbage decreased, in the surrounding municipalities it increased by 40% "because some people took their garbage with bags and took it to neighbouring municipalities or communities.
The citizen "will not learn with the way I want to separate the garbage. The citizen will learn to separate garbage if we give incentives and this is what the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Environment must do with the €25 million budget," he said, citing as an example incentives to give money to municipalities to ensure the best conditions so that costs fall.
** €25 million - This figure covers the rollout of the scheme by local authorities until the end of 2026, with the money set to cover equipment, inspections, local information campaigns and provisions for vulnerable groups.
The equipment provided will include special bin lorries which will transport organic waste, as well as locks for bins, and vending machines for government-approved rubbish bags.