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Mykonos Drowning in Tourists – and Garbage!

Mykonos_skoupidiaWith tourists flocking to one of Greece’s most popular islands, they’re getting a taste – make that smell – of how the country’s crushing economic crisis is affecting everyone: garbage is piling up in paradise because there aren’t enough rubbish collectors.
The dumpsters are overflowing with garbage, the smell is intense and contamination is spreading everywhere. There are mountains of refuse forming, said to be an estimated 80 tons.
The new mayor of the island, Irini Grypari, said besides a lack of collectors there’s also not enough trucks to pick up the waste. “We will do everything to clear the island, although the case has turned very difficult. We have requested the hiring of 39 seasonal employees since a very long time, and our request isn’t yet satisfied. We are trying to rent six more garbage trucks,” said Grypari.
The mayor claims that the situation was worsened when owners of villas showed up and started tossing out tons of household waste into already-overflowing dumpsters.
“The following phenomenon is observed in many villas: The owners are coming for their summer holidays or for the weekend and they throw in the dumpsters whatever they have in their warehouse. They throw whatever you can imagine, from broken sofas, mattresses, fridges, disused cleaners for their swimming pools, equipment from their kitchens, to empty champagne bottles from their parties. Unfortunately there’s no space for deposition of such materials, but the world doesn’t seem to understand it.”
The island’s landfill is rated among the worst on the Greek islands, said the Deputy Regional Governor Tzortzis Makryonitis. “This is not a sanitary landfill but a garbage dump, which doesn’t meet even the minimum standards and the European directives and constitutes a source of risk for the environment,” he reportedly told the mayor, who said somebody would do something about it someday.

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