Recycling for old appliances
A factory in Athens that recycles used household electrical goods was inaugurated yesterday – even though it started working 16 months ago – as officials urged residents to hand over used refrigerators and televisions to their municipality rather than to scrap merchants. It is estimated that 600,000 fridges, 400,000 computers, 300,000 TVs and 100,000 mobile phones are thrown out by Athenians each year but few of these electrical goods (some 170,000 tons in total) end up being recycled, as they are usually picked up by some of the 30,000 scrap merchants thought to be active in the city. An indication of what a small number of the household goods end up being reused is that during its 16 months of operation, the recycling factory, officially opened by Public Works and Environment Minister Giorgos Souflias, has processed 80,000 fridges, 250,000 computers, 100,000 TVs and 10,000 cellphones. The used appliances are picked up by municipal trucks and taken to the recycling center. This is a service all municipalities are obliged to offer but few residents seem to know about. «The scrap merchants provide a service but it is the wrong way to dispose of these items as toxic substances, such as CFCs, end up in the environment,» Spyros Efthymiou, the head of Anakyklosis Syskevon that recycles the goods, told Kathimerini. «We buy the appliances from the scrap dealers but hope that all residents will soon become aware and give the used goods directly to their municipality for recycling,» added Efthymiou. Under European Union regulations, by 2009 local authorities throughout Greece have to provide this service. Brussels wants Greece to recycle 44,000 tons of electrical appliances each year. Last year, Greece recycled just 11.5 tons.
