Cyprus has been identified as one of several member states in danger of not meeting the 2025 preparing for re-use and recycling targets for municipal and all packaging waste according to a report published by the European Commission.

According to data accompanying the report, in 2020 the municipal waste recycling rate in Cyprus was 16.8%, which is much lower than that 2025 target of at least 55%. Packaging waste recycling was closer to the target for 2025, at 59.9% compared to 65%.

Cyprus is also one of the countries significantly behind when it comes to the goal to reduce the municipal waste landfilling rate to 10% by 2035, since the country recorded 67% in 2020.

The report includes a serious of recommendations for Cyprus, with the main ones being for the authorities to:

– Extend separate collection at source to all population and improve citizen awareness of waste segregation and prevention. Implement economic instruments such as pay-as-you-throw, and introduce landfill tax to incentivise separate collection at source and minimise landfilled waste.

– Further develop waste treatment infrastructure associated with the higher steps of the waste hierarchy, especially increased treatment capacity for bio-waste and support for home composting, and establish national quality standards for compost/digestate from bio-waste.

– Improve data management system to present coherent and verifiable data sets, especially for packaging waste

The report also highlights two examples of good practices from Cyprus, focusing on the national plan to promote the use of compost from bio-waste and the waste reduction programme for the tourism industry.

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