NICOSIA – A by-product of record numbers of tourists pouring into Cyprus the last few years is that it’s become more difficult to deal with the rising amount of waste on the small island.
Cyprus’ waste disposal system is under pressure, despite efforts to reduce landfill use and encourage recycling, waste management and tourism, the site ENCA.com reported that waste experts have found.
Panicos Michael, manager of the five-star Alion Beach Hotel in Ayia Napa, stressed that the rising number of visitors raised major issues.
“I think that this will be a big challenge for the island, in general, to cope with the increased amount of waste that’s going to be produced,” he noted.
Cyprus had a record of 3.2 million visitors in 2016 and is on track to top that this year, official figures showed. The government’s waste management agency is trying to separate waste from recyclables to keep the landfills from getting further overcrowded.
Cyprus landfilled some 79 percent of its municipal waste in 2013, according to the latest data available on Eurostat, far above the European Union average of just 28 percent.
Michael said his hotel had cut landfill output per guest by half since it introduced waste separation in 2003. The hotel divides glass, paper, plastic, metal, drinks cartons and other categories for recycling.
The Ayia Napa municipality aims to offer organic waste collection from hotels by spring 2018.
It has also installed recycling bins in visitor hotspots such as the waterfront directly below the Alion Beach Hotel.
Kyriakos Parpounas of Green Dot, a waste management firm that deals with the vast majority of recycling in Cyprus, told ENCA that tourists’ waste output was equivalent to adding 300,000 permanent residents to the country’s 866,000 population.
Cyprus has much improved its waste management since 2005 when Green Dot was founded in response to a new European Union law demanding better sorting and recycling, he said.
Green Dot has run a series of school and media campaigns encouraging Cypriots to “reduce, reuse and recycle,” but the country still only recycles 19 percent of its waste, far lower than the European average of 44 percent.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: AyianapaProtaras License: CC-BY-SA
Source: thenationalherald.com
