EU funds reserved for waste facilities in northern Greece

Plans for two waste processing facilities in northern Greece – one for Epirus and one for eastern Macedonia – came a step closer to fruition Thursday after the Environment Ministry issued a decision earmarking some 28 million euros in European Union structural funding for their construction.

The largest of the two facilities is to be located in Dodoni, in the northwestern regional unit of Ioannina, and will comprise a state-of-the-art biological waste processing plant with a section producing refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The Dodoni project is to get the bulk of the EU funding – 21.5 million euros. Meanwhile 6.4 million euros has been set aside for a sanitary landfill in the municipality of Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece.

The landfill will have the capacity for 705,000 cubic meters of trash, much of which is to come from nearby factories. The tenders for the projects are to be launched in the fall after the mayors and regional governors elected in local authority polls last May assume their posts.