Kalymnos is hollow within a stone’s throw from the harbour of Kalymnos. The lack of a Landfill Site on the island is a health “bomb” with South Aegean regional governor George Hatzimarkos stating that the problem will be solved within 2025.

Tons of rubbish, smoke, and animals make up the image of the landfill in the Gianochorafa of Kalymnos. Household waste, broken mattresses, plastics, furniture, metal, and even a fishing boat can be found at the dump. As aired on the show Where There Is Greece, there are piles of rubbish on the road leading to the landfill. The island produces about 7,000 tons of waste per year.

The municipality of Kalymnos and the South Aegean Solid Waste Management Agency are proposing to transfer the waste to the Kos landfill for the next few years. For its part, the municipality of Kos is opposed and is expected to appeal to the courts.

“In 2025 the issue in Kalymnos will be solved”

“Everything depends on people, and when collective bodies fail, we see the consequences. I’m a new mayor, just taking office. There’s a history behind the fact that the Kalymnos landfill wasn’t completed. Specific individuals and their actions led us here. Upon taking over the municipality and recognizing the issue, we discussed it with the regional governor, and together we asked, ‘Why let such a beautiful place be polluted?'” said Kalymnos Mayor Ioannis Mastrokoukos.

“For his part, South Aegean regional governor George Hadjimarkos said these are “shameful images that traumatize and offend us.”

“Kalymnos unfortunately has an informal volcano that has been burning for decades. In 2025 we decided to get involved as a Solid Waste Management Body even though these uncontrolled landfills are the responsibility of the municipalities. We said 2025 would be the year when the “volcano” of Kalymnos would be extinguished. You should know that every year, on 2 June and 2 December, Greece receives fines from the European Commission for these situations and we started island by island to close these cases. The fines are about 80,000 per six months per landfill. Imagine 160,000 at least we pay annually. But it’s not the fines, it’s the insult to our culture, public health, environment, our image and identity,” he added.

For his part, the region governor commented that “as soon as I took over, a fine came, in addition to what the regional governor told you, 344,000 euros from the environmental services. Such fines keep coming. It is possible that we have reached 2025 and we are breathing in cancer that we are paying for on top. I ask all the coordinating bodies to contribute to making these shameful images disappear in 2025.”

The solution

“The temporary solution is to transfer the waste to the Kos landfill, which has not yet been done. We took over in September 2024 and this landfill is not only a landfill, it is a landfill. A proper landfill has to be built first before the transfer can take place. As for the final solution, in the next 15 days the project for the waste management units in Kos and Kalymnos, a new landfill in Kos, recycling management units and the transfer for 25 years of all residues from the Kalymnos treatment plant to the Kos landfill. The project costs 47 million and will pass the inter-ministerial committee by the end of January,” Hatzimarkos said.

“Nothing is being recycled”

“There are dead sheep on the street, nobody cares. When private individuals and professionals come and the landfill is full and they can’t get through the fire and soot, they leave it out. Can’t they see the goats inside? Don’t they care?” Kalymnos resident Theologos Koullias told SKAI.

“Nothing is being recycled. Attempts are made to start some things but they always stop somewhere, the main problem being transportation. I believe residents are ready to participate in proper waste management with recycling,” said the president of Kalymnos restaurants, Yannis Tyrakis.

According to Tyrakis, tourists have complained about smoke from the landfill. “We are trying to cover it up, to sweep this big problem under the carpet that doesn’t get in. The geomorphology of the island does not help to find suitable sites,” he added.