Serbia losing EUR 50 million a year through landfills – Insufficiently used economic potential of waste

Although there are no precise data on how much the waste market in Serbia is worth, according to some estimates, more than EUR 50 million is “buried” each year in landfills, Vecernje Novosti writes.

What's certain, the newspaper adds, is that there's great economic potential in waste, which Serbia is not utilizing sufficiently.

Kristina Cvejanov, president of the Serbian Association of Packaging Waste Recyclers, notes that lack of care and lack of financial investments in the waste management system make it impossible to use waste as a resource.

– In order for such a state of things to change, the state must make a radical shift in its environmental policy. The formation of a dedicated ministry of ecology in the new government should be at least the beginning of the process – Cvejanov pointed out.

According to her, utility enterprises have proven to be the weakest link in the chain of waste collection.

– A bad financial situation, obsolete and inadequate means of transport, frequent management changes, lack of field workers and insufficient motivation for developing the system have led to the situation in which the private sector and informal collectors for whom waste is the only source of funds have taken the primary initiative in waste collection – Cvejanov says.

She believes that the problem of informal collectors can't be solved with force, but that the solution needs to be all-encompassing and satisfactory to all interested sides, which requires dialogue.

Srpska asocijacija reciklera ambalažnog otpada Novi Sad

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

Kristina Cvejanov

Serbia waste market

waste management