A worker at the site of a new ‘sanitary’ landfill at Fyli, northwest of Athens, oversees the dumping of trash there yesterday. The new site replaces the old dump, on a nearby site, which reached saturation several months ago. The landfill, which cost 152 million euros to build, is flanked by a waste management unit and a biogas management system.

As European Commission officials arrived in Athens to check for signs of progress following government pledges to close down hundreds of illegal landfills, authorities opened a new “sanitary” landfill at the site of the capital’s saturated dump.

The new landfill at Fyli, on the city’s northwestern outskirts, was opened yesterday by Deputy Interior Minister Athanassios Nakos.

He said the new site, which cost 152 million euros to create, sent a powerful message. “It is an unshakeable argument against those who object to the creation of sanitary landfills while tolerating the operation of illegal dumps,” Nakos said, referring to recent protests by local authorities in Athens and elsewhere. Nakos described the opening of the new landfill near Athens as “a significant step toward (Greece) acquiring a modern and comprehensive waste management system.” The new 35-hectare landfill, which will receive some 5,000 tons of trash daily, includes a waste management unit and a bio-gas management system, Nakos said. The aim is that, ultimately, only the residue of the processed trash will end up in the landfill.

As for the EC officials’ tour of illegal landfills, there was no update by late yesterday. The government faces hefty fines – some 34,000 euros per landfill, per day – if it fails to close down some 1,555 illegal dumps by year end.

In a related development a fire broke out at a makeshift landfill in a quarry at Markopoulo, south of Athens’s international airport. The blaze was quickly extinguished but reignited debate about whether the quarry site should be closed.