An enduring bane

Waste management has been a bane for Greece since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s. The country has not only persistently failed to adopt the new collection, recycling and processing methods that have prevailed across the rest of Europe, it has also wasted a ton of money on numerous projects that have gone belly-up and on bureaucratic procedures that are characterized only by their opacity. 

The problem is more acute in the country’s largest region, Attica. If local government cannot find a viable solution on its own, the central government must step in and take on the task of centrally formulating a plan – not just to hit targets, but so that we stop sweeping the issue of waste management under the carpet forever.