ENVIRONMENT Commissioner Charalambos Theopemptou yesterday revealed his new mission to reduce household organic waste by turning it into compost.
Theopemptou said he had already contacted the Chambers of Commerce and the Employers and Industrialists Federation about importing composters that households could use..
“We cannot continue to overlook the advantages of domestic composting,” he said urging local authorities to jump on the bandwagon.
He said household composting, which turns food waste into fertiliser would reduce the need to transport tonnes of rubbish to landfills, cutting down on overall rubbish tolls.
“We really need to get this going,” Theopemptou told the Cyprus Mail. Although he had no figures on how much food Cypriots throw away, he said it was “a lot”.
Under the EU Landfill Directive member states must reduce the amount of biodegradable waste landfilled to 75 per cent of that produced in 1995, by the year 2010, to 50 per cent by the year 2013 and to 35 pewr cent by 2020.
“The majority of European countries are now promoting domestic composting, drastically reducing the organic waste that reaches landfills,” said Theopemptou.
“In a lot of countries composting is taught in schools and kindergartens, and to help the efforts a lot of local authorities offers subsidised compostors at low prices.”
All sorts of organic waste can be put into the bin-like compostor such as the remains of vegetables and fruits, garden waste like cut grass, tea bags, shredded paper and cardboard. Theopemptou said that such food remains as meat and dairy products should not be used.
Before composting can take off in Cyprus, however, the local authorities will have to come on board because unless someone has their own garden and intends to use the compost themselves, there is no means of collection.
Theopemptou said in other countries some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are set up to collect the compost and then sell it to municipalities and use the money for charity. In Cyprus no such NGO exists.
“One of the other problems in Cyprus is of course the temperature,” he added.
“But if you have a suitable compostor in a shady part of the garden, after a while you will have a substance that many say is better than chemical fertilizer. Compost also has the advantage of aiding plants to resist illnesses.”
The environment commissioner said local governments should start immediately to deploy the composters in their own areas and educate the public in how to use them.
