Hospital waste unit inaugurated
A new, 3.2-billion-drachma hospital waste disposal unit was opened yesterday on the western outskirts of Athens, but will not function properly for at least another year due to shortcomings in hospital infrastructure. The incinerator unit in Nea Liosia, which was declared open by Environment, Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis, will eventually be able to process up to 30 tons of waste every day from Attica’s 120 hospitals and clinics. But for the time being, no more than one of the 21 tons produced daily will end up at the unit. The rest will mostly continue to enter the household waste system or the sewerage system, while a very small percentage will be burnt in the mostly antiquated incinerators that some of Attica’s hospitals possess. For the new unit to function in full, all hospitals will need to build cold storage facilities where their waste will be selected and temporarily stored. And then special garbage lorries will have to be bought to transport the waste to the Ano Liosia incinerator. This is expected to happen in a year’s time.
