Greece’s Environment Ministry has approved another expansion of the Fyli landfill, northwest of Athens, the country’s largest waste disposal site, to increase its capacity by 2 million cubic meters and ensure operations for another year.
The Special Intermunicipal Association of Attica (EDSNA), which manages municipal waste in the Athens region, submitted the request early last year. The plan calls for raising the existing landfill vertically within the area already licensed in 1993, without disrupting ongoing waste processing and disposal operations.
The expansion requires a modification of the landfill’s environmental permit. Authorities, including the Environment Ministry’s General Directorate of Environmental Policy and Waste Management Division, as well as the Attica Regional Environment Directorate, all issued positive recommendations.
Fyli receives about 4,500 to 5,000 tons of waste daily, roughly 1.4 to 1.6 million tons annually. The new landfill cell is expected to extend the site’s operational life by around 14 months. Once the permit modification is complete, the work will be carried out by the Helector-WATT consortium under an extension of a contract signed in 2021.
Fyli remains the only operational landfill in the Attica region. A second site at Grammatiko, east of Athens, was never opened due to local opposition, forcing Greece to return European Union funding for its construction. Future plans call for Grammatiko to handle only residual waste from northeastern Attica after a regional waste management facility is completed.