ATHENS — The Fyli landfill outside Athens where the capital's waste is taken is so far over capacity that a residents group there protesting its presence said towering mounds of rubbish could collapse in a landslide.

The Western Front group issued an announcement warning of the possibility dump, which has landed Greece in European court on several occasions for environmental and other violations, said Kathimerini.

The group said there are several mounds of trash that are towering over the natural landscape and at risk of collapsing and said it's unlikely the landfill will be closed this year as scheduled, their worries backed by other waste management experts, the paper said.

Similar fears were expressed in January after a report written in 2015 – held for five years – showed the landfill, along with others in the country, were far over capacity and being overwhelmed with trash, more than two million tons annually for the capital.

The report said the landfill at Fyli was bringing pollution in the air, the soil and groundwater in the wider region and bringing a health risk to workers as well as residents in the area.

The analysis of pollutants and their composition over an area covering 1,000 hectares at the Fyli landfills was conducted on behalf of the municipality by a private company, the paper said.

The details were released only after a two-year-long legal battle and then revealed by the Western Front, the local government trying to keep secret the enormity of the problem.