All waste may be equal, but some waste is more equal than others’ waste. That, I suppose, is how the Mayor of Kos perceives the issue. I don’t know if Mr. Nikitaras has read George Orwell, and specifically his work Animal Farm, but one thing is certain—he seems to consider the waste from Kalymnos inferior to the waste from Kos, based on who produces it.
The debate over whether the Kos landfill (ΧΥΤΑ) will accept and process baled waste or not is not the core issue. It’s secondary and is merely used as a pretext for Kos to reject everything. What we’re dealing with here is environmental racism at the surface level, and, deeper down, political obsession.
I watched the meeting of the Kalymnos Municipal Council streaming live on April 9th 2025 regarding the closure of the Kalymnos landfill. I heard the President of the South Aegean Waste Management Agency (ΦοΔΣΑ) and Regional Governor of the South Aegean, Mr. Giorgos Hatzimarkos, express his justified outrage at the lies being spread by the Municipality of Kos in an effort to prevent the transfer of Kalymnos’ waste. On both a personal and institutional level, the Regional Governor is being slandered. But the rage of the Mayor of Kos doesn’t stop there.
He has turned his own citizens against the residents of Kalymnos, with racist remarks coming from the mouth of the Mayor himself, such as “How will Kalymnos’ garbage pass by our JEWELS?”—the relationship between the two islands is being poisoned. Neither baled nor any other form of waste is tolerable to the people of Kos. Kalymnian garbage is unacceptable, while Kos’ own garbage is fine. As for the “jewels” of Kos, I assume they refer to the luxury hotels, which also produce waste, perhaps even “superior” waste compared to that of the locals. People in Kos, it seems, gaze at their jewels like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, seeing nothing beyond “their precious.”
For years, they’ve viewed Kalymnos as their satellite, sending their own waste here to “upgrade” our landfill, and then mocking us when it frequently catches fire from the flammable materials they provide. And now … the idea of the opposite happening….? We’re told they’re doing us a favor by allowing us to use the state airport “Hippocrates”… that we’re lucky to pass through Mastichari. We haven’t forgotten how, during the COVID pandemic, the Mayor blocked Kalymnian boats from docking in Kos out of fear they’d infect the Koans with the “Kalymnian variant”… It is bottom of the barrel politics, unfortunately, even though the processing of waste from Kalymnos at the Kos waste management plant will only benefit the residents of Kos as it will reduce the cost payable by the citizens.
This attitude from the Mayor reflects a broader stance from the neighboring island toward Kalymnos and its residents. When hate speech comes from the mouth of a local leader, it’s only natural that it trickles down to the general population. Multiple incidents have come to my attention where taxi drivers from Kos ridicule, verbally assault, and target Kalymnian passengers as they transport them to Mastichari.
I honestly don’t know what stinks more—the garbage itself or the toxic atmosphere created by the Mayor of Kos between the residents of the neighboring islands. Sadly, I foresee that the vulgarity will continue, through legal battles in the Council of State and with threats of European court involvement, for as long as hatred dominates in the Municipality of Kos.
Eleftheria Tiliakou
Editor
Kalymnos Times
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