Tender for regional waste landfills in Macedonia soon

Officials from the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning of Macedonia announced the start of a project to set up regional waste landfills across the country in line with European standards which would be financed from European Union funds. Deputy Minister Jani Makraduli said he expects a tender to be announced soon for the first of those regional waste landfills.

He said he expects the European Union delegation in Skoplje to publish an invitation for offers to set up a regional waste center in the northeast of the country in the town of Sveti Nikola. Makraduli said that EUR 38.5 million would be secured for the project from EU IPA funds.

“The government of Macedonia supports the building of regional waste landfills in line with European standards and expects the tender for the project soon,” he said.

Ministry spokesman Besa Taieši said the goal of the ministry’s activities in the field of waste management is the drafting of planning documents for regional integrated waste management through IPA funds and the implementation of the law on waste management.

He recalled that the ministry is drafting a new law on waste management as part of the EU Twinning project title Strengthening Administrative Capacities to Implement the Framework Directives on Waste and Directives on Special Waste (packaging, batteries and electrical and electronic waste).

“The goal of the new law on waste management is establishing an efficient system of waste management which will reduce the negative effects on people and the environment to a minimum,” he said.

The Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning started work on the new law in December 2017 and the first draft is due to be published on the ministry website in March 2018.

One regional waste landfill in eight regions

Macedonia has just one regional waste landfill in its eight regions – Drisla in Skoplje – which is registered for the processing and disposal of hazardous waste. Waste in the other seven regions of the country is in temporary or unregulated landfills.

According to data from the Macedonian Internal Affairs Ministry, the country has a total of 54 active and controlled municipal landfills classified as high, medium and low risk and 270 unregulated landfills in the Skoplje region containing a total of some 5,512 cubic meters of waste.

According to the National Statistics Department, a total of 610,227 tons of communal waste was gathered in Macedonia in 2016.