Greece faces court over waste disposal
Greece is to be brought before the European Court of Justice over its failure to rid the country of unmanaged waste disposal sites and to complete Attica’s urban waste water processing plant on the islet of Psytalleia, the European Commission announced yesterday. Greece has 1,458 known illegal landfill sites – down from 2,810 in 2001 – where nearly half of the country’s waste is disposed of, although national and European Union legislation has been in place since 1975 regarding the proper collection and disposal of waste. Greece has already had to pay a fine over the garbage dump at Kouroupitos, on Crete. As for Psytalleia, the deadline for completion of the second phase of the plant expired in December 1998, but the project is still not ready. The Commission has also sent Greece a final written warning because of delays in treatment of sewage sludge from Psytalleia.
