Waste recycling and secondary materials recycling in Serbia for sure have excellent potential for business development and even energy production from its different sources.
The industry is yet to be developed and bigger projects are expected in the future as waste management and different co-generation solutions are also highly perspective.
Communal Waste: Communal waste, constituting an estimated 63% of all waste, is relatively difficult and uneconomical to recycle. At present most communal waste collection is managed by municipalities and JKPs, and a number of municipalities already manage recycling programs. There is a relatively widespread movement in Serbian municipalities and regions to contract landfill and waste collection services to independent operators (international companies) in 25- year public-private partnership (PPP) agreements. This type of waste is yet to be developed and utilized for different cogeneration projects which will soon start in Serbia.
Industrial & Commercial Waste: Industrial and commercial waste (i.e. factories, supermarkets, public facilities such as hospitals, and warehouses) is the most desired and demanded waste on the market. It can probably be said that without industrial or commercial waste, a private-sector operator cannot survive; all of the private collectors and recyclers interviewed in this assessment rely to some extent (in some cases exclusively) on industrial or commercial waste.
Construction Waste: Recycling of construction waste falls into two categories: i) construction material salvaging; and ii) concrete (and other materials) recycling. Salvaging (undamaged and reusable materials) is typically handled by the owner; if left to the construction contractor, materials are typically disposed of in the landfill. The recycling of concrete waste, including reinforcement metal, bricks and stones, is typically not an economical process except on very large demolitions. In this case, the materials are pulverized, often together; the metal is removed; and the chunks are sorted by size and used as aggregate base gravel. Typically, the chunks cannot be added to new concrete mixes.
Packaging Waste: There are an estimated 334,000 tons of packaging waste generated in Serbia per year. Packaging waste is covered under the Law on Packaging & Packaging Waste and has recovery targets established for coming years, beginning with 5% recovered and 4% recycled in 2010, increasing to 30% recovery and 25% recycling in 2012. PROEurope (Packaging Recovery Organization Europe) is the umbrella organization for European packaging and packaging waste recovery and recycling schemes; Seko-Pak is the sole PRO-Europe operator in Serbia. National PRO-Europe organizations like Seko-Pak essentially relieve industrial companies and commercial enterprises of their individual obligation to take back used packaging through the operation of a scheme that fulfils these obligations on a national basis on behalf of their member companies. The aim is to ensure the recovery and recycling of packaging waste in the most economically efficient manner. The Green Dot trademark is a financing symbol that indicates companies have signed a license agreement with a packaging recovery organization.
The industry of waste management and utilization for energy production is yet to be developed in Serbia, still represents a great opportunity for market development.
