About 2.8 million tons of waste are produced in Serbia annually. Only 15 percent is used. And so every year, according to estimates, we throw away at least 100 million euros. We buy more and more, so we produce more and more waste, and the recycling industry is not developing fast enough to take advantage of it.
Waste is money. Admittedly, only after the journey from selection in house, containers, transportation, processing and sale to the industry that could use it again has passed. In Vienna, they realized long ago the preciousness of the waste from which they produce electricity and heating, in Italy, the mafia took control of garbage. In our country, bottles continue to end up in rivers, landfills are growing and expanding, as well as garbage around containers.
“We lose more than 100 million euros annually because we don’t recycle and because we don’t create new value from what can be reused, because we don’t have the solutions that our industry needs. In such an accident, when you quantify 100 million euros through kilometers of roads or through clinical centers, schools, kindergartens, you come to the point that we are too arrogant when it comes to waste management,” says Slaviša Mitrović from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
Hotels, restaurants, shopping chains are among the biggest producers of packaging and municipal waste. They pay for its destruction per square meter, not per kilogram, which, they say, would be more profitable.
That provision could soon be changed, the relevant ministry announces. They also say that the industry for special waste streams – electrical and electronic devices, rubber, waste oil – is well developed due to state incentives.
“What we are doing in the coming period is to build regional recycling centers that will have various facilities for mechanical biological treatment precisely so that we can extract all that is a resource from that household waste and so that we can further direct it towards the recycling industry. What is important for our recycling industry is to have a good collection network and that everything that becomes waste eventually becomes a resource so that they can treat it further,” says Sandra Dokić from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Many EU countries have banned the export of waste
Many European Union countries have banned exports, such as Croatia, while Hungary has put waste management under a concession. During that time, according to the data of the Environmental Protection Agency, paradoxically, Serbia annually exported 250,000 tons of scrap iron, and imported the same amount.
“Serbia does not have a landfill tax that could replace the new incentive that it pays you more to recycle and reuse it than to throw it away. The key factor is for citizens to be stimulated by being responsible for the process, but for that we need a new infrastructure in Serbia,” says Slaviša Mitrović from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
Milica Kuzmanov from the company “Sekopak” states that operators should invest in infrastructure and education of citizens
“It will be necessary for all operators to invest in infrastructure and education of citizens and to ensure that as many citizens as possible separate packaging waste. This exists in Belgrade, but not in smaller towns, it is important to take into account both cities and smaller towns and to work with the citizens”, Milica Kuzmanov points out.
There is no exact data on how many companies in Serbia deal with waste processing – each waste is an industry in itself, depending on the material, but also on who makes it. However, the biggest problem is the one that still ends up in rivers and burns in landfills. Not only because of the economy but also because of the ecology.
Source: RTS
Source: energetskiportal.rs
