CYPRIOTS are the second biggest producers of rubbish per person in he EU after Ireland, throwing away 724kg of trash every year, up 124 kg per person in the space of eight years.
According to statistics released yesterday, only the Irish produce more rubbish than the Cypriots, accounting for 732kg per person compared to the EU average of 534kg.
The least throwaway country is Poland, which produces only 260kg per person, followed by the Czech Republic with 280kg. Britons throw away 610kg each every year.
Most of the 25 member states are producing more rubbish since 1995, except Belgium, Lithuania, which has cut its rubbish consumption by 50 per cent, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia.
The Eurostat report was issued yesterday in Brussels to mark Green Week and focuses on various environmental issues, including rubbish production and fuel consumption.
The figures show that Cyprus and the Netherlands are the only two EU member states entirely dependent on crude oil and petroleum products.
The countries with the lowest dependence on oil in the EU are Estonia, and Slovakia, where it accounts for less than 20 per cent of the energy used. Most countries are under the 50 per cent mark.
Cyprus and Malta are the only two of the EU 25 that have no natural gas resources, the second most used source of energy in the bloc. The biggest dependence on natural gas is in the Netherlands, at 45 per cent, whereas in Estonia and Poland the main source of fuel is coal.
In most EU countries most fuel consumption is used for household purposes, except in Cyprus where 53 per cent is used for transportation. The EU average for household use is 27 per cent with an average of 28 per cent of all fuel being used on transport within the bloc. Cyprus and Malta have the lowest use in households with only 14 per cent, followed by another warm Mediterranean country, Spain.
With no railways or inland waterways, Cyprus and Malta again top the list for road use in the EU with 100 per cent.
The number of passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants in Cyprus has also risen from 338 per thousand in 1993 to 405, while the EU average is 463. The country with the highest number of cars per 1,000 population is Luxembourg with 643, followed by Italy with 590 and Germany with 541. The lowest number of cars per capita is in the former Eastern bloc countries, where the number is between 250-300 per head.
??
??
??
??
