The Government is in a position to proceed with an integrated municipal waste management system through the Municipal Waste Management Plan 2022-2028. This is an effort to promote the implementation of separation of waste at the source and separate collection, to promote waste reduction measures across all economic sectors, to raise the awareness of local government to implement ‘Pay As I Spend’ schemes, and to promote awareness and sensitization measures.
The Environmental Authority approved the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment Study for Municipal Waste Management Plan 2022-2028.
In order for Cyprus to meet its obligations to the EU and develop an integrated and sustainable approach to waste management consistent with the European Waste Strategy and the Europe 2020 Strategy, qualitative and quantitative targets and actions have been set for the next six years.
However, Cyprus is lagging behind the EU’s 2030 targets for waste management. Specifically, while the EU target for municipal waste recycling was 60% of the total amount, we see that until 2019, Cyprus had only achieved 18%. The recycling target for 2020 was a 50% recycling rate of the recyclable materials generated. Regarding the percentage of municipal waste to be landfilled, the EU target for the year 2030 is 10% at maximum, while until 2019 Cyprus continued to bury 81% of its municipal waste in landfills.
