While browsing through the news articles from a few days ago, I noticed two separate items from Cyprus Mail newspaper. These articles weren’t linked or related in any way, but in my news reader they came up right next to each other, and I think the connection is obvious.
The first article was about Cypriots drinking less alcohol than their European Union peers:
CYPRUS has among the lowest consumption of alcohol per capita in the EU but when it comes to those who do like a tipple, binge drinking is quite prevalent.
According to a report released yesterday on alcohol in the EU, compiled by the World Health Organsiation (WHO), Cypriot alcohol consumption stands at 9.3 litres per capita compared to the EU average of 12.4. Malta came in at the lowest with 8.1 litres per capita, Greece with 10.5 and the UK with 12.5.
The second article was about Cypriots producing more junk than anyone else in Europe.
CYPRUS has again topped the list in Europe as generators of the most household waste with 760kg per person on average.
In the EU27, 502 kg of municipal waste was generated per person in 2010, while 486 kg of municipal waste was treated per person. This municipal waste was treated in different ways3: 38 per cent was landfilled, 22 per cent incinerated, 25 per cent recycled and 15 per cent composted.
The amount of municipal waste generated varies significantly across member states. Cyprus, with 760 kg per person, had the highest amount of waste generated in 2010, followed by Luxembourg, Denmark and Ireland with values between 600kg and 700 kg per person, and the Netherlands, Malta, Austria, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Portugal with values between 500kg and 600kg.
Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Greece, Slovenia, Hungary and Bulgaria had values between 400kg and 500kg, while values of below 400kg per person were recorded in Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia and Latvia.
There! I think there is enough data to support the theory of solving the environmental crisis with alcohol consumption. Now all I need is a government grant to do some extensive drinking research.
