Circular economy practices in EYATH

The need to “move circularly”, with the cooperation of local government, businesses and especially society in order to change the culture of our “ecosystem”, was agreed by all the speakers at the Delphi panel “Circular Economy: Confronting the Roadblocks to a Sustainable Future” Economic Forum 2024, in which the managing director of EYATH, Anthimos Amanatidis, also participated.

Mr. Amanatidis highlighted the connection of the circular economy to the climate crisis, especially in the water sector, pointing out however that “Thessaloniki will not have a problem with the availability of water, as a series of projects have been carried out and we use operationally modern procedures based on the best international practices”. “We are a listed company that operates the water supply and sewerage infrastructures in the wider Urban Development Complex of Thessaloniki on a daily basis. Like all water supply and sewerage companies in the world, EYATH is called upon to face the challenges of sustainability and the climate crisis, moving of course within a strict framework of environmental legislation. EYATH provides expertise in the Balkans, Cyprus and possibly Istanbul, we are now a modern best practice boutique company in the SE Europe region. Our goal is sustainable development, we protect Thermaikos and the environment, while maintaining our social face”, noted the managing director of EYATH.

He pointed out that “the transition to the circular economy becomes necessary for the protection of water resources. EYATH aims to gradually reduce its generated waste, in order to reduce its environmental footprint, and at the same time tries to create an organized circular economy system, both with regard to the management and processing of its waste and with the Dewatered Sludge Thermal Drying Unit” .

As typical examples of circular economy practices, he mentioned the following: in the context of preventive maintenance or repair of the network, the waste produced and related to electrical material is given for recycling, in the phase of repairs of network damage, excavation waste is given to licensed recycling stations, part of the treated wastewater is used in the facilities as industrial water and mainly for irrigation in the plain of Thessaloniki in periods of water scarcity. As he also said, the biogas produced from the digestion process at the two wastewater treatment plants (EELTH and AINEIA) is used in the first one for the production of electricity and thermal energy and in the second one for heating the administration building. But in both, a quantity of the biogas is reused for heating the digesters themselves.

Finally, Mr. Amanatidis made a special mention of the Dewatered Sludge Thermal Drying Unit of EELTH, “unique in the Republic of Macedonia, which receives the amount of dewatered sludge produced daily in the facility and subjects it to heat treatment, with the aim of producing final dry product with a solids content of more than 92%”. The goal, as he said himself, is for the sludge remaining from the treatment of Thessaloniki’s urban sewage to be of better quality and “for this very reason it is used as a fuel additive in a well-known cement industry, as a fertilizer additive for application to crops or in composting facilities and, finally, as a soil conditioner in crops of non-edible products”.

The managing director of EYATH with the director of Strategic Planning, Projects and Development of the company, Alexandros Mende, left, at the Delphi Forum.