Greece Residents Only Recycle 16 Percent of Waste

At the beginning of this year, The European Court of Auditors released a report entitled “Combating Food Waste,” which revealed that the European Union (EU) generates approximately 88 million tons of food per year. And shortly after that, campaigners developed a petition called “This is Rubbish,” which urged MEPs to halve the amount of food waste generated in the EU by 2030.  

Last month, the European Parliament voted in favor of four legislative amendments that will help the European Union recycle 70 percent of its municipal waste and 80 percent of its packaging material by 2030. And now, the European environment agency has revealed that residents in Greece only recycle 16 percent of their waste, which is less that the EU’s goal of diverting 50 percent of waste from landfill by 2020.

Some of the main issues in Greece is that residents have to sort their household waste on a voluntary basis, the EU-funded zero waste program in Greece isn’t a pay-as-you-throw program so all residents pay the same amount for municipal waste collection and many residents use free plastic supermarket bags instead of trash bags for their waste.

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