More work for recycling companies - Environment Protection Fund finances construction of new waste collection centers throughout Serbia

(Brzan Plasta waste collection center)

With the construction of 30 collection centers for communal and other waste in Serbia, recycling companies would resolve the problem of shortage of raw materials, few thousand people would get jobs, the size of waste for disposal would be reduced, while the environment would be less polluted.

These are only some of the effects of construction of waste collection centers commenced by the Environment Protection Fund of Serbia. Novi Sad is the first city where a waste collection center and a waste management unit will be built, while permits for construction of such facilities have also been granted to Belgrade, Nis and Kragujevac. These centers are intended for public utility companies, as well as for citizens who will be able to bring old car batteries, refrigerators, tires and other waste to these waste collection centers.

The Environment Protection Fund has invited local self-governments to suggest adequate locations for construction of waste collection centers.

- The public invitation sent by the Fund to all cities and municipalities in our country is active until January 31. They should submit information on locations that are included in planning documentation and are suitable for construction waste collection centers. Each city and municipality must find at least one such location – Zeljka Jurakic, the Director of the Environment Protection Fund of Serbia, says for eKapija.

(Zeljka Jurakic)

In order for construction works to be finished as soon as possible, the Fund has taken on the responsibility to run public procurements and finance construction of waste collection centers. As people at the Fund say, the accurate amount of required funds will be known at the end of February.

- We will outsource experts for voluminous public procurements in order to make everything quick and precise. We expect local self-governments to take active part in equipping of locations with infrastructure and to be maximally efficient in granting all permits – Ms. Jurakic explains.

Envi Tech is hired to design a typical preliminary technical solution for a waste collection center and a waste management unit. Dragan Dilparic, the Deputy Director of that Belgrade-based company, speaks for eKapija about advantages of such waste collection centers.

- The waste collection network in Serbia is insufficiently developed so that recycling companies do not have enough material for recycling. Such centers would enable a constant supply of materials to recycling companies. Public utility companies do not have infrastructure for collecting and separating waste with a utility value. There will be lines for separating waste in these centers and that is where unselected waste will be brought. Certain part of materials would be recycled, while the rest would be disposed of. In that way, the size of waste for disposal would be reduced – Mr. Dilparic explains.

He says that 36 domestic companies with about 500 workers may participate in construction of waste collection centers. Dilparic also says that each center would employ between 7 and 10 people.

- Domestic companies can completely equip collection centers in accordance with all standards. In addition to workers at the waste collection center, people will also be hired for waste transport and finishing treatment. According to our calculation, if 30 waste collection centers are built, few thousand workers will get jobs – Mr. Dilparic points out.

(Dragan Dilparic)

The company Brzan Plast from Batocina, the leading processor of waste raw materials of PET packaging and packaging plastics in Serbia and a manufacturer of building foil, plastic bags, trash bags, presses for baling plastic waste, had a test collection center built in October 2010, which may serve as a model for municipal waste collection centers as well.

- The center has been presented to Minister for Environment Protection Oliver Dulic and the Permanent Conference of Cities and Municipalities, and this waste collection model has been backed by Umka, SET (S.E. Trade), 034 Group, Eco recycling and other recycling companies because they see it as a method for safe supply of raw materials and employment of their capacities.

Mr. Dilparic says that the price of a waste collection center depends on the number of people living on a certain territory, as well as on the estimates of the size of waste that would be delivered to such center.

- It is better to have several collection centers in larger cities in order for citizens not to have to carry waste from one end of the city to the other – says the interlocutor of eKapija.

Envi Tech is the author of the main project for Brzan Plasta waste collection center, while the project for the waste collection center in Novi Sad should be finished in one month. The Belgrade-based company also works on the project for the waste collection center in Vlasotince.

- What is in the pipeline at the moment is construction of a waste collection center at the landfill in Novi Sad, while implementation of the transfer station project in Vlasotince has already begun – says Dilparic.

One of possibilities for financing construction of waste collection centers is public-private partnership. According to the Director of the Environment Protection Fund, private capital is necessary for promotion of waste management.

S.O.