Filenews 24 January 2025 - by Angelos Nicolau
The next steps for the implementation of the "Pay as You Throw" system were determined at a meeting between the Minister of Agriculture and the Unions of Municipalities and Communities. A roadmap and regular meetings on a monthly basis of the working group at ministerial level were decided.
Subsequently, action plans will be prepared on the basis of feasibility studies carried out on behalf of local authorities. The concerns of municipalities and communities were raised, which also have to do with the final cost to the consumer, which seems, at first sight, to be lower than the annual fee currently paid by households. On the issue of household costs, moreover, it is a common concern of all who agree that it should not be the citizen who should pay for it. The fees are expected to be determined with the feasibility studies still being prepared for local authorities. It is not excluded, of course, that an attempt will be made to separate cleaning fees from garbage collection fees.
At this stage, the Department of Environment has been investigating the organic waste that will be collected separately and will end up in units for their management. It already has before it proposals from bodies which are being processed.
In her statements, Minister Maria Panayiotou described this meeting as very important, as the steps and actions to be followed for the implementation of the "Pay as You Throw" system were co-decided. "We have set in principle all participants that it is our common intention and common will to apply the system to sorting at source, precisely because it has a significant environmental benefit," he said.
He clarified that it is a system that has been designed since 2022. "It is a system that we have received since 2022 from the previous government, as it has been formed," he explained.
The president of the Union of Municipalities, Andreas Vyras, made it clear that municipalities and communities want the implementation of the "Pay as You Throw" program. "We have made it clear that it is a system which, as a local government, as a state, we have the obligation to implement, not because we are obliged to the European Union, but because it is something good for our country," he said, adding that with the green transition, recycling is a system that we must find a way to implement. During the meeting, Mr. Vyras said, "about 20 serious and important issues have been addressed, which before this system can be implemented must be answered and to which solutions must be given, as everyone must be ready to implement this system for the benefit of citizens."
He added that precisely because they are very serious issues, which need a process of finding solutions, they have decided on a road map so that they can start examining these issues one by one and finding solutions. "There will be working groups both on behalf of the State, on behalf of the Ministry and the officials and on behalf of the Union of Municipalities and Union of Communities, so that soon we can start work, to see one by one point, the legal points, the economic points, the practical issues that we have to resolve, important issues such as management, where the organic waste that we will collect will go, so that we are ready at some point to be able to implement the system," he said.
In addition, Mr. Vyras said that the issues that exist and need to be found are in almost all categories. As he noted, these are legal issues, legal, legislative amendments need to be made, as well as economic issues. "We need to provide answers to issues that will probably lead municipalities to great adventures tomorrow. They are practical issues of how the sorting will be done, where the sorting will go, but also important issues in the management of this waste," he said and explained that it is not only to be collected at source, but this waste should also be properly managed.
On behalf of the Union of Communities, its president, Andreas Kitromilidis, expressed confidence that solutions will be found. "We need to move forward with the system because it is an issue that we need to implement in Cyprus for the good of everyone – both society and our communities and residents," he said. Mr. Kitromilidis concluded by saying that through the discussions that will take place, "we believe, yes, that we will find the solutions and little by little we will be able to implement a system."
