Waste Watch Corfu: Municipal Council decision not clear enough

Waste Watch Corfu considers that Sorting at Source is not clearly enough defined in the Council's initial decision. It also reiterates the issue of excluding Temploni from the Integrated Waste Management Facility, which should become a Recycling Sorting Centre.

Waste Watch Corfu statement:

Waste Watch Corfu sees that its efforts are beginning to bear fruit as the responsible public body is now discussing the principle of zero waste and its implementation. The discussion itself, however, gave us some cause for concern and indicates that we still have a long road ahead of us in order to be convinced that beyond the intial statement of intent there is a real political will for radical and incisive changes as regards the huge issue of waste management even though the Council's initial decision was positive.

We didn't see a clear definition of a system for sorting at source and the steps that need to be taken for it to succeed. On the contrary, solutions that are already underway and various recycling systems were adopted without specific targets and we find it hard to distinguish any comprehensive plan being proposed. The association of the vote with the proposal from a specific non-profit organisation that was recently publicised gives rise to certain questions.

Because the principle of zero waste aims to gradually reduce the production of mixed waste through sorting at source we at Waste Watch Corfu wish to stress that this principle isn't compatible with the planned construction of the Waste Management facility and so the construction study should include planning for its transformation into a Recycling Sorting Centre - if the zero waste policy achieves its targets with sorting at source, then the mixed waste facility will, in practice, become redundant.

Waste Watch Corfu will be following developments closely to ensure that this first discussion doesn't just remain a statement of good intentions. With the tragic situation on the island - piles of waste bales mounting up, the removal of waste from the island still up in the air - and even though well-intentioned statements have been made, we would have expected intensive recycling to have already begun as was requested when the transportation of waste off the island was approved. On the contrary, recycling continues to be supported by the efforts of volunteers at the Green Spots.