Crete’s Regional Waste Management Plan (RWMP) main goal is to enhance the sorting on the source and the recyclement of all kinds of urban waste in the regional unit of Rethymno and promoting the prevention of creating waste, stabilizing their production in today’s levels.

According to authorized revision study of Crete’s  RWMP, (whose quantitive and percentage goals in managing Urban Solid Waste (USW) are totally compliant with the existing institutional framework as well as with the goals given in the National Management Waste Plan for the 2020 USW recovery goal achievement) a part of USW should be recovered in waste processing plant of USW.

The implementation of this act is necessary, since it is the first waste management project in the regional unit of Rethymno, that serves the regional population and the thousands visitors who are served by the tourist infrastructure of the area,  in the direction of rational and sustainable management of USW, the protection of the urban and natural enviroment, of energy saving and natural resources.

Parallel to the implementation of this act, the qualitive and quantitive goals on managing the USW and the diversion of the biodegrabable fraction from the burial, set by the European and National Legislation are being achieved, as they are captured in the new National Management Waste Plan and the revised  Regional Waste Management Plan of Crete.

The act of the Project is co-financed by OP-YMEPERAA, by the EU and the Cohesion Fund by 85%.

More specifically:

  • It will contribute to the integrated waste management of an entire regional unit of Crete (Rethymno) that has the ability due to it’s total annual waste production potential.
  • It will be the first waste management project in the regional unit of Rethymno, in the direction of rational and sustainable management of USW, that will serve a great regional population percentage and a large number of visitors who are served by the tourist infrastructure of the area.
  • It will contribute to the achievement of the Regional Solid Waste Management goals for SWM, as they are set by Crete’s Regional Waste Management Plan, which also incorporates the Local Waste Management Plans of all the Municipalities of the Region of Crete.
  • It will meet the principle of waste prevention, which seeks to reduce the total volume of waste and reduce the harmful effects on health and the environment through reuse, material recovery and recycling, in order to reduce the ammount of waste for final disposal, taking into account financial and social costs.

Therefore technical support is required during the construction and trial operation of the project in order to:

  • Make the necessary checks for the contruction of the project, so that there are no significant unforseen and delays in implementation.
  • Ensure the proper design of the project and the selection of the necessary equipment to ensure the lowest investment and operating costs of the unit and to address the environmental impact of the construction and operation of the project, as provided by the environmental project permit.
  • Check the mechanical equipment of the processing unit regarding its compliance with the technical specifications.

In addition, during the construction and testing operation, technical support is required in order to:

  • Have a proper coordination in the works and in the construction schedules of the project, so that it is in full operation according to the RWMP provided time.
  • Have an overall coordination in construction issues that will arise during the construction (eg. proper management of the excavation materials of the project so as to achieve a proper balance of project landfills, that provide the overall needs of the project for soil materials)
  • Ensure both the quality of the project and the efficiency of the individual stages
  • Check the operation processes of the unit.
  • Make quality control of the material to be composted and of the material produced as ground cover material and as fertilizer material
  • Check and measure the electricity and power generated.
  • Complete the temporary and / or final receipt of the project.

The 1st subproject, which is the MAIN SUBPROJECT is about the study, construction and test operation of the Waste Processing Plant (WPP) and Waste Landfills of Amari. The Amari WPP will serve the entire Regional Unit of Rethymno and will accept both pre-selected organic waste from Mixed Urban Solid Waste (USW) as well as mixed from the conventional collection bin.

In particular, the plant will import 35,600 tons/yr of mixed urban waste and 7,400 tons/yr of pre-selected organic.

The plant includes:

  1. A reception unit and temporary storage for incoming USW
  2. A reception and temporary storage unit of incoming pre-selected organic
  3. A mechanical processing unit for USW with the purpose of recovering recyclable materials and separation of the organic fraction for biological processing
  4. A biological processing unit of the organic fraction of USW and the pre-selected organic by the method of dry anaerobic digestion
  5. A biogas utilization unit
  6. An aerobic biological treatment unit
  7. A refining – refining unit of the material after aerobic treatment
  8. Environmental protection units for the processing of gaseous pollutants and wastewater
  9. Construction of the landfills
  10. All the necessary infrastructure projects, supply of mobile equipment and trial operation of the project

Subproject 1 will include two distinct sections: the construction of the project of WPP and Waste Landfills (18 months), its 6-month trial operation and the normal operation service for 5 years.

The Facility will consist of the following units:

  1. The entrance-infrastructure projects, that include:

Entrance Gate

Entrance Outpost

Administration – Staff Service Building

Vehicle-Machine Maintenance Building (workshop)

Vehicle Cleaning Layout

Fuel Tank

Weighing Device

Electric Generating Pair

Fencing

Perimeter Tree Planting

Fire Zone

Lighting Protection Works

Green Works

Internal Road Construction

Flood Protection Works

Infrastructure Networks (Water Supply, Sewerage, Industrial Water, Firefighting, Perimeter Lighting)

Environmental Monitoring and Remote Control Projects

  1. The Mechanical Processing Department
  2. The Biological Processing Department
  3. The Maturation section of the solid residue of the Biological Processing
  1. The Drain Processing Unit
  1. Their anti-pollution Technology and Environmental Monitoring projects

Facilities

  1. Waste Landfills

In order to accomplish the construction of an organized landfill for the waste of the individual units of the processing plant, a series of projects are required for its proper operation, in which indicatively are included the following:

  • Design and operation projects of the site
  • Waste sealing works
  • Construction of drainage collection network and their processing / disposal
  • Construction of a biogas collection and disposal system
  • Environmental monitoring of the site
  • Waste Landfills restoration works
  • Deodorization and de-icing works

The second sub-project is about the completion of the expropriations for the acquisition of land for the

construction of the proposed project, after its issuance with no. 316/2009 Decision of the Court of Appeal of Crete, according to which is determined the amount of the final compensation for its expropriation area 122,243.91 sq.m. The deposit of the final compensation has been completed (no. 5/26-1-2018 Government Gazette, issue).

The third sub-project is about the transfer of the medium voltage network to the project area until the entrance of the facility.

The fifth sub-project is about the actions of awareness and publicity of the Act.