"Garbage Avalanche" From Collapsed Landfill Fills Sea Around Andros Island

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Waters off the Greek island of Andros were choked with garbage on Monday after a landfill was flushed into the sea in an environmental disaster indicative of Greece's chronic waste management woes.

The island's deputy mayor Lefteris Ballas said strong rainfall last week had caused a "garbage avalanche" from the landfill which lies some 400 metres (yards) above Schinias beach in the picturesque island's south-east. "Fortunately the damage was limited," Ballas told AFP, adding that the landfill has operated for the past 40 years without a licence.

Officials threw up nets to keep the waste from floating to neighbouring islands in the Cycladic archipelago, a group of popular Aegean Sea islands that draw hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.

The island's authorities have begun a clean-up operation in the area which is near an archaeological site, a Geometric-era settlement over 2,700 years old. They have also invited university experts from Athens to help stabilise the landfill and are seeking alternative waste management methods.

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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Garbage_floats_off_Greek_island_after_landfill_collapses_999.html