Police clash with protesters over waste processing tenders

Protesters clashed with police outside a department of the Attica Prefecture on Tuesday morning, following the launch of a tender for the management of the disputed Fylis and Ano Liosia landfills in northwestern Athens.

Some 500 residents of the impoverished suburbs gathered in front of the local authority building on Katechaki Street to protest the planned construction of two new waste management units for the region’s biggest garbage dumps, arguing that they would attract even more waste to their areas.

The government plans to increase the capacity of the Fylis and Ano Liosia landfills in order to shut down a number of illegal dumps currently taking on a portion of the capital’s waste.

Regional authorities launched the competition for private firms to express their interest in the projects, saying that it is imperative that construction gets under way so that the bigger plants can process all of Athens’s waste as Greece is already facing hefty fines imposed by the European Commission for failing to shut down some 60 illegal dumps operating around the country.

Source: ekathimerini.com