Liapades Green Corner suspends operations as 120 bags of recyclables await collection
Photo: Enimerosi archive
CORFU. The volunteer group warns that the site has reached its limits and is calling for immediate intervention by the Municipality – Collection services are inadequate and lack a regular schedule, according to its letter.
The Liapades Green Corner Recycling Centre is set to temporarily suspend operations from Wednesday 16 September, as the facility has now reached capacity with separated recyclable materials awaiting collection.
The situation was brought to the attention of the Mayor of Central Corfu and Diapontia Islands, Stefanos Poulimenos, and Deputy Mayor for Cleaning Services, Pantelis Giannoulis, by the Centre’s volunteer group, which called for immediate intervention.
According to the group, the facility is now holding 120 large bags containing clean and fully separated recyclable materials – PET/PE, aluminium, metals, plastic bags and bottle caps – while the blue recycling bins are also full of cardboard and paper.
The problem, the letter explains, lies in the rate at which the materials are being removed. Despite repeated contact with the relevant municipal services and efforts by a Sanitation Department employee, the volunteers say collections are limited to 9–12 bags at a time and take place at irregular intervals.
As a result, recyclable materials are coming in faster than they are being removed, leaving the Centre with no remaining capacity, as well as no empty bags needed to continue sorting and collecting materials.
The volunteer group is asking the Municipality to provide, within 48 hours, an open-bed truck equipped with a grab crane or loader, so that all 120 accumulated bags can be removed. At the same time, it is calling for a permanent, regularly scheduled collection service using a suitable vehicle, to prevent the same situation from recurring.
The case of Liapades is particularly noteworthy because these are not unsorted waste materials, but recyclables that residents and volunteers themselves have already collected, cleaned and separated for recycling. The problem arises at the next stage of the chain: their regular collection and onward processing.
“The Liapades Recycling ‘Green Corner’ stands as a model of citizen participation in recycling,” the group points out, while stressing that the volunteer effort cannot continue without consistent support from the municipal services.
The key question now is whether the Municipality will be able to remove the accumulated materials in time for the Centre to reopen as normal on Wednesday, but, more importantly, whether a reliable collection system will be put in place. Because in this case, it appears that residents are doing their part when it comes to recycling; what they are asking is for the next step to work too.
TONY CLARK
