Alarm raised over illegal landfills on Mt Aegaleo

Home renovation debris and assorted rubbish including toilet bowls, old sofas and broken TVs are piling up on Mount Aegaleo on the outskirts of Athens, endangering the sparse remaining greenery and also increasing the risk of wildfires.

The Environmental Association of Municipalities of Athens-Piraeus (PESYDAP) said that volunteers and staff from its civil protection teams are "forced on an almost daily basis to identify and immediately, if possible, remove waste from the mountain."

"With illegal dumping, sites on Mt Aegaleo are being turned into landfills, degrading and threatening with fire the last forest ecosystem of western Athens," stressed PESYDAP President Grigoris Gourdomichalis. 

He added that 11 fires broke out on Mount Aegaleo last summer and so far five this year. "All of them had as initial sources of ignition, either sites of illegal waste...