1 Introduction and organic waste situation

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Solid Waste Management in Greece has been remarkably upgraded during the last fifteen years. What was generally considered as a major problem, now it is increasingly becoming a well-organised and environmentally responsible activity with specific goals, at least in the urban area and in large parts of the rural area. A significant improvement can be measured to facility development, collection and recycling. At the same time, it is obvious that management of MSW in Greece has to be further improved and, most important, greatly transformed in order to achieve the quantitative targets posed in the EU Directives, with the landfill directive (99/31/EE) especially requiring a major restructuring of many components of the waste management system, as Greece still relies to landfilling for over 90% of its waste.

When it comes to composting, the current situation can be summed up as follows:
– no source separation schemes are in place for the organic fraction of MSW, therefore there are no composting facilities currently producing quality compost;
– a couple of large MBT facilities under construction and are expected to operate soon;
– as a consequence, to date standards on compost quality refer to mixed MSW compost.

The very low charges for disposal (appr. 15-20 €/t) reduce the financial feasibility of other options such as recycling and composting. There are currently no plans to introduce some kind of landfill tax.

The overall production of MSW in Greece is estimated around 4.600.000 tons for the year 2004. corresponding to a production rate of 1.10 kg/ca/day.

Until the mid ’90s waste disposal was characterised by the thousands of dumpsites (4850 were recorded officially), 70% of which were uncontrolled (corresponding to 35% of the total waste quantities). The proportion of the population served by regular collection system was around 70%, while in numerous small islands and isolated villages collection was poorly organised. Today practically the whole country is served by well organized collection and transportation of the waste and there is a plan to gradually close down all the dumping sites by the year 2007. Last data for the year 2003 report that 1032 dumping sites, mainly small, were still operating in various municipalities of the country.

The composition of MSW is as follows (1997 data):
Putrescibles: 47%; Paper and card: 20%; Metals: 4.5%; Plastics: 8.5%; Glass: 4.5%; and Others: 15.5%.

Of these waste 92% is disposed of on land (sanitary landfills and dumps) and the rest is source separated and recycled. Currently no composting or MBT plants operate.

2 Composting plants

Today there are three MBT plants at different stages of construction / operation in the country.
The first plant was built in the city of Kalamata in Peloponese and begun operation in 1995. It treats mixed MSW (i.e. there are processes for mechanical separation of MSW and tunnel composting of the organic fraction). The capacity of the plant is 31500 t/a. The mechanical separation in early process steps, combined with the refining step may give a fairly acceptable material in terms of impurities and tests have shown the heavy metal content to be within the Greek limits. However, due to various problems the plant was closed down at the beginning of the year 2003 and although there are plans for its refurbishment and operation up to better standards, these have not been realized yet.

A new large plant is being built in Athens and will soon go into operation. It will also treat mixed MSW (mechanically separated) and it will include a rotating drum for size reduction and pretreatment and tunnel composting. Its daily capacity will be 1200 tons MSW. Plans are to add to this 300 tons primary sludge from Psytalia wastewater treatment works and 130 tons of shredded green waste. This results in an input of 1000 tons per day of organic materials to the composting unit and final production of 500 tons compost daily, after refining. The plant has not come to full operation yet, so there are no results about the quality and use of its products.

A third plant, of similar technology but much smaller (40,000 tons/year capacity), is being constructed in Chania, Crete.

Various regional waste management plans foresee the construction of MBT plants as the main tool to meet the landfill directive targets, but the proposed plants have still not entered the actual planning phase. Obviously, while the option to revise the waste management plans to include other options such as thermal treatment or source separation is always open, but conditions for either of these options do not seem to be mature yet.

At the moment, there are no facilities processing source separated organic waste, although it would be fairly easy to do so with at least the green waste, as they are collected separately anyway. Some municipalities have thought of doing so, but have not been able to secure funding.

3 Legal framework for the organic waste stream and the compost production

Some important steps have been made lately regarding the waste management legislation:

i. The packaging directive was transposed to Greek legislation by issuing the 2939 Law in 2001. Its implementation started with the formulation of a private – public partnership, the Packaging Waste Management Company (PWMC), in 2003. This company has undertaken the task to organize packaging waste management activities all over the country and to assure increase in recycling rates for all recyclable materials, by enhancing citizens’ participation and constructing new MRFs.

ii. The landfill directive has been transposed to Greek legislation by issuing a Ministerial decree in 2002 (29407/3508). The implementation of this directive now presents a great challenge for Greece since the improvements already achieved in the area of waste management, though quite important, are not enough to achieve the targets and a change in waste management culture is needed.

Another important area that characterizes current situation is the secondary raw materials market. Currently, no market for compost or RDF exists. This is due to two main reasons:

- Greek legislation imposes compost specifications, in order to utilise it for agricultural use, while its application on fields is allowed for a limit of years in order to avoid bio – accumulation of heavy metals (simple transposition of the sludge directive limits). Currently, no positive experiences exist for the compost that has been produced by the Kalamata MBT plant and farmers are used to the commercial products they apply for years

- Strict specifications apply for RDF especially when it comes to its moisture. Besides, the use of RDF as an alternative fuel presupposes modifications and additional air pollution treatment units, for industries willing to use it as a fuel (i.e. cement factories). The related costs for these modifications are significant and it is doubted that the industry will be willing to be involved.

4 Contact and sources of information

Dr Katia Lasaridi

Assistant Professor
Department of Geography, Harokopio University
70 El. Venizelou
GR 176 71 Kallithea, Athens, Greece

Tel. +30210 9549164
Fax +30210 9514759

E-mail: klasaridi@hua.gr