Summary
Solid waste management and wastewater management are an important environmental issue in Serbia, as only 60% of municipal solid waste is collected. Waste management consists of waste collection and land disposal only. Open dumping and discharge into surface waters has been common practise in rural parts of Serbia, despite strict regulations on solid waste management since 2009. The consequences are 164 official landfills and 4400 unofficial ones.
Enforcement of environmental protection laws is responsibility of municipalities, but they lack resources and trained staff for organised waste collection, poor or non-existent in rural areas. Solid waste management facilities and services (SWM) are undeveloped. Ensuring capacity for collection, transportation and disposal of waste is the main challenge of waste management in municipalities.
The goal of this project is to separate recyclable materials from municipal and solid waste. EU assistance ensures essential equipment, including waste collection vehicles, containers and bins in four waste management regions - Duboko, Pirot, Srem – Mačva, and Pančevo. Regions that will be supported have already established regional landfills in line with the EU requirements. Moreover, some of the covered regions are supplied with separation lines like in Duboko. In Srem-Mačva they have been contracted and are under construction. All regions have either planned or already provided recycling yards.
The project is strengthening technical and organisational capacities for source separation of waste, which is currently not in place. Consequently, it is expected that the amount of recyclable waste in 17 municipalities will increase and that the quantity of landfilled waste will be decreased. This will help Serbia to become a cleaner country by following EU standards in waste management.
Detailed information
https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/2017-040499.05-eu_support_to_the_environment_sector.pdf
Ilić and Nikolić (2016), “Waste management benchmarking: A case study of Serbia”;
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289685622_Waste_management_benchmarking_A_case_study_of_Serbia