Lapta looks into recycling ‘green waste’

LAPTA locals got together on Tuesday to discuss ways to recycle “green waste” that could be used as compost.

Village muhtars, agricultural producers and landowners, foreign residents, and non-governmental organisations and associations attended the focus group meetings organised by Lapta Mayor Mustafa Aktuğ.

The meetings were held as part of the first stage of the municipality’s “strategy planning agenda” for a “Green Waste Recycling Project”, Mr Aktuğ told CyprusToday.

More focus groups will take place in Alsancak on Wednesday followed by a meeting with government offices, which will mark the final stage of the role played by the project’s expert communications team.

The team is looking into the expectations and the needs of the people to maximise the benefit that will be derived from the 550,000-euro EU-funded project.

The integration of “diverse players” is a practice that is advocated by Lapta Municipality’s grassroots “Govern Together Project”, Mr Aktuğ noted, which aims to engage the public in important decisionmaking processes.

“Since 2018, we have set up ‘people’s assemblies’, we have travelled to villages and we have been very inclusive of non-governmental organisations under the Govern Together Project,” he said.

“We really want foreign nationals to join the conversation, which the pandemic had slowed down. However, in the aftermath of this pandemic we want to see more participation.”

Lapta will run the Green Waste Recycling Project jointly with “local society” which aims to “strengthen the solid waste management in Lapta and Karavas/Alsancak and improving the quality of public service,” according to an EU information website.

The specific aims of the project are “to establish a compost facility that will allow the separation, recycling and reuse of green waste and to reduce the amount of green waste sent to the central garbage storage area”. Mr Aktuğ added that the project should also help create a “green market”.