Cell phone glued to his ear, Kosmas Vassilas watches his truck crews round up multi-colored bins on the island of Corfu, where a groundbreaking recycling initiative is bucking the trend of Greece's anarchic waste disposal.
In a country where many think nothing of dumping used appliances, old furniture and even toilets on the street with their garbage, the municipality of North Corfu has launched a program that has residents sort their waste into more than a dozen bins.
Besides yellow for paper, red for plastic and blue for aluminium, there are bins for second-hand clothing, empty ink cartridges, used lightbulbs, electrical appliances and cooking oil, among others.
"People call to throw away a mattress, a fridge, anything you can imagine," said Vassilas, a municipal supervisor, as bright red and yellow trucks emptied matching bins behind him.
Recycling only reclaims around 20 percent of household waste in Greece.
The European Union average was 48.2 percent in 2023.
Under EU rules, this percentage must increase to 65 percent by 2035. And only 10 percent of municipal waste can be buried in landfills.
Running out of time, Greece is now considering large-scale waste incineration.
But the plan has run into strong opposition from local councils, which cite health concerns.
'Hair-raising'
In Corfu, change came after a protest shut down the local landfill in 2018, choking the island in garbage.
"People were throwing garbage out of balconies and cars. It was hair-raising," said deputy mayor Spyridoula Kokkali.
Inspired by grass-roots recycling by local British and German expatriates, North Corfu decided to have its 18,000 residents sort their waste into a rainbow of separate bins.
Kokkali, who is in charge of the program, helped retrain municipal personnel to follow the new rules.
"I spent the first two years of my term on a garbage truck," she told AFP.
The approach saves money, on an island whose three municipalities still pay around 15 million euros ($17 million) annually to ship waste to the mainland.
Nearly a decade after the landfill protest, a recycling plant now operates at the former dump, with a waste treatment unit scheduled for 2027.
With a population of 100,000 people and more than four million visitors last year, Corfu sees its garbage output "skyrocket" in summer months, Kokkali said.
Each tourist generates an estimated three kilos (6.6 pounds) of garbage a day, she said.
Further south, in central Corfu, recycling efforts are more limited.
"Recycling bins here are filled with all sorts of waste," said business owner Stelios Sofianos.
"Every night, I take out my cardboard boxes. But then, (all the bins) are picked up by the same truck. I've never seen a truck pick up (just recyclables)."
In the picturesque old town, visited by thousands of tourists daily, street bins have been removed altogether because they were constantly overflowing, shop-owners said.
EU fines
Greece has a long history of EU fines over poor waste management.
Until recently, it had 65 separate landfill cases that cost 80,000 euros a day in EU fines.
"You could build two or three waste treatment plants with that kind of money," mused Dimitris Theodotos, a senior member of the Ionian islands regional waste management authority.
Last year, the government said it had brought the number of illegal landfills down to 20.
But old habits die hard.
On Wednesday, three people were arrested after around 200 tons of rotting meat from a Corfu food company were transported to the mainland and illegally dumped near a river.
Last month, the EU Court of Justice fined Greece 5.5 million euros plus a daily penalty of 12,500 euros for failing to shut down an illegal landfill on the nearby Ionian island of Zakynthos.
The EU is also investigating possible misuse of funds in a network of neighborhood recycling kiosks.
Incineration row
The environment ministry -- which did not respond to information requests -- last year said Greece would clean up its act on waste management by 2026, ending the EU fines.
Admitting Greece cannot meet this target through existing models, the ministry is pushing forward with plans for six privately funded incineration plants by 2030.
But a succession of local councils have rejected the plan.
In September, Athens criticized the move, arguing incineration is "extremely dangerous" to public health and has "severe consequences for the environment".
The secret to successful waste management and recycling, argued Vassilas, is getting schools to back the program.
"People don't listen to grown-ups. But we listen to our kids," he said.
