Years of postponements and plans on paper, without substantial decisions and time-consuming procedures with pending issues that have accumulated over time, have brought the country to the worst position it could be in in European environmental policy. The possibility of heavy fines from the European Court of Justice is now serious.
The European Commission's decision, on 1 October 2026, to refer Cyprus to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) seals a multi-year course of procrastination and lack of political will.
Despite the letters of formal notice from 2021 and the reasoned opinion of December 2024, the competent Services did not present a serious and workable plan. Today, 21% of Cyprus' municipal waste is buried without any prior treatment. The country's total dependence on landfill reaches 63%, when the European target for 2035 limits it to less than 10%.
For years, the state has been content with studies, consultations, transitional periods and plans, while the infrastructure is aging and waste is accumulating. Instead of bold cuts, decisions are postponed and responsibilities are transferred from Department to Department, from Ministry to Ministry and from there to Local Government.
The picture presented by the country's basic infrastructure is revealing of the situation. The Paphos Sanitary Landfill (Landfill) remains an open wound, where it is practically not managed at all.
The Integrated Waste Management Facility (OEDA) of Pentakomo, despite the takeover of its operation by the Water Development Department (WDD) in December 2023, continues to be under-functioning. It carries accumulated technical, operational and organizational pending issues, while its final upgrade is constantly postponed. Since then, the WDD, with the support of the Limassol Development Agency, have concluded more than 180 contracts to cover operational needs and for interventions related to equipment, safety and health, fire protection and environmental protection.
The most typical case of state inaction is the Integrated Waste Management Facility of Koshi. Since 2018, when it was decided to close the illegal landfill of Kotsiatis, huge volumes of waste in the province of Nicosia, more than 270,000 tons of mixed waste, have been taken to Koshi. The unit, however, did not have the capacity to process all these quantities. Instead of deciding on its expansion in time, so that the waste does not end up in the landfill, the state chose the solution of easy burial.
The state machine preferred the security of postponement to the responsibility of the decision.
The existing infrastructure in Koshi could, with the necessary investments in its expansion and equipment renewal, manage all the waste in the districts of Nicosia, Larnaca and Famagusta and prevent it from ending up in landfill.
Instead, the equipment was left to age after more than fifteen years of continuous operation, the renewal needs accumulated without a decision being made to meet them, the capacity of the cell of the Phase A of the landfill was exhausted and Cyprus was led with mathematical precision from Brussels to Luxembourg.
What the government plans
The biggest challenge facing Cyprus in waste management is the high reliance on landfill. Although significant investments have been made in waste management infrastructure and recycling systems have been strengthened in recent years, a large part of municipal waste is still landfilled.
The final plan for the upgrade of the two OEDAs will be determined on the basis of the Sustainability Study of the Municipal Solid Waste Management Infrastructure Network, through which the necessary infrastructure for the completion of the national waste management network will be determined. This study will determine the planning for the period 2029 to 2035 and is expected to be completed within 2028.
Particular priority is given to the Paphos district, where waste is still disposed of without prior treatment. As the first deliverable of the study, a specific action plan will be prepared for the period 2026 to 2028, with the aim of ending this practice by 2027 at the latest.
Until its completion, the necessary interventions to meet the immediate operational needs are being promoted. The proposed interventions will serve not only the needs of the transitional period, but will also be able to be used in the context of the final upgrade, so that the relevant investments have long-term value, without prejudging the final choices that will emerge from the viability study.
According to the existing planning, the award of the contract for the OEDA Pentakomo is expected within the second half of 2027, while for the OEDA Koshi within the first half of 2028, with the duration of the upgrade works estimated at 36 months.
Compliance with European directives
The achievement of European and national targets is possible through the implementation of actions included in the Municipal Waste Management Plan 2022-2028 approved by the Council of Ministers. Among these actions is the implementation of the systems of sorting at the source and separate collection of municipal waste, the "Pay As You Throw" (PDO) system.
