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Cyprus not meeting EU waste recycling targets

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Cyprus is one of several EU states in danger of not meeting 2025 preparing for re-use and recycling targets for municipal and all packaging waste, according to the European Commission.

According to the EU report, in 2020, Cyprus’ municipal waste recycling rate was 16.8%, much lower than the 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” in the goal to reduce the municipal waste landfilling rate to 10% by 2035 since it recorded 67% in 2020.

Authorities are recommended to:

  • Extend separate collection at source 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 the 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.