Ministry eyeing trash as alternative electricity source
The Environment Ministry is paving the way for burning trash to produce electricity, with sources pointing to significant interest in such a scheme from the Public Power Corporation, particularly for its plant in Lavrio, southeast Attica.
Given the interest of PPC and other market players, the ministry estimates that it would not need to build the required plants itself, while the scheme would also help it achieve its target of reducing the amount of refuse that ends up in landfills to under 10% of the total.
“We will proceed with construction in cooperation with the private sector only if the market doesn’t come through,” General Secretary for Waste Management Manolis Grafakos told a conference on Wednesday.
However, given the recyclables retrieval rate of less than 15% at the country’s sorting plants, the refuse ending up at the new units will inevitably be mixed and include materials such as plastic.
