It is estimated that Serbia has 10 times more illegal operators than legal acting recyclers, officials of the German Scholz Holding, which is doing business in Serbia, have said.
Approximately 3.000 small illegal scrap yards are operating in the metal scrap recycling industry, and beside that, there are more than 2.000 illegal dumping sites for waste. It is a fact that inspectors do not control that grey market and that only legal operators are visited by authorities, Beate Kummer, Scholz Holding GmbH, told an international conference titled Circular Economy and Waste
Management, held Thursday as part of the Eco Expo Fair, which is taking place in Belgrade on March 19-20.
“The main demand in the next few years is to close thousands of illegal landfilling sites in Serbia, if there should be a real chance for an access to the EU,” Kummer said.
Another major problem is that metal scrap trading companies started their illegal operations within ports that are used for exporting recycling material, said Kummer.
“Illegal acting companies use ports for storage and handling scrap, which reduces their costs. High amount of scrap trading in Serbia is done with cash, in the gray zone with significant tax evasion, Kummer said reports Tanjug.
Source; Balkans
