Why garbage from the coast should not be taken to Nikšić

The previous government wasted four to five years planning a regional landfill - incinerator, fantasizing mostly about how to clear more than 100 million euros. The European Union, of course, explicitly refused to finance such a project because it is environmentally unacceptable.

The new government, unfortunately, kept the same concept of a regional landfill - an incinerator, not taking into account either the interests of citizens or how wrong the technology on which the project is based is.

At an imposing meeting of the presidents of eight municipalities - Nikšić, Šavnik, Žabljak, Plužine, Kotor, Budva, Herceg Novi and Tivat - with the participation of the line minister and experts from the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, an "epochal" decision was made that the regional recycling center for the disposal of municipal waste from those municipalities is being built in - Nikšić.

The capacity of that center is planned for 200 tons of municipal waste per day!

Two hundred tons of municipal waste a day? Have the presidents of those municipalities, experts or even the minister of ecology, spatial planning and urbanism ever visited any European metropolis? Do they know that millions of inhabitants live in them and that, along with all other calculations, the capacities of municipal waste disposal technologies are adjusted to those numbers? Is it possible that they forgot how many inhabitants our cities have and that the amount of waste depends on that number?

Since it is obvious even to laymen that these technologies are inapplicable in our conditions, the explanation for their download could be the desire of our "negotiators" to repay the hosts for a nice welcome or some other form of "respect" that I don't want to mention...

It is also important to note that the offered technology includes chimneys, and each chimney is a potential environmental risk that is expensive to pay for.

It is really unclear what rational reason could make them accept a technology that can only be optimally used if 200 tons of garbage are collected per day. In order for this basic prerequisite to be fulfilled, 50 tons per day should be collected from Nikšić, two tons per day from Plužine and Šavnik, and three tons per day from Žabljak.

As a reminder, we already have a recycling center in Žabljak that cost 2,5 million euros, but there is no recycling in it precisely because of the insufficient amount of municipal waste.

Even if those 57 tons are somehow collected, the problem is the rest of up to 200. Obviously, it should be provided by the other municipalities - Kotor, Tivat, Budva and Herceg Novi - which have given consent to transport their waste to Nikšić.

There is every chance that none of the creators of this ingenious idea asked themselves how realistic it is to enable the safe transportation of 143 tons of waste per day from the coast to Nikšić in winter conditions. Or, even more risky, during the tourist season when there is chaos on the roads to the sea and no convoys of garbage trucks.

Here is how that transport from the coast to Nikšić would look like: Kotor - Budva - Cetinje - Podgorica - Danilovgrad - Nikšić 170 kilometers, two to three garbage trucks of 20 tons per day; Tivat - Kotor - Risan - Nikšić 120 km, two trucks of 20 tons of garbage per day; Budva - Cetinje - Podgorica - Danilovgrad - Nikšić 145 km, three trucks of 20 tons each; Herceg Novi -Grahovo - Nikšić 95 km, two to three garbage trucks of 20 tons per day.

In total, a dozen trucks full of garbage would circulate every day on the most frequent Montenegrin roads. Not to mention potential incidents and guaranteed unpleasant smells...

It is also important to emphasize that Kotor, Tivat, Budva and Herceg Novi must build transshipment stations, where garbage from small collection trucks would be transshipped into large ones of 20 tons.

Such transportation of garbage to Nikšić will cost 15 euros per ton - depreciation, fuel, lubricant, tires... All this, of course, will be paid for by coastal residents through increased utility bills...

In 2018, together with experts in this field, I visited Kotor, Tivat, Budva and Herceg Novi. We talked with the citizens and their representatives, we also had two joint meetings in Kotor and Tivat.

We also organized a joint visit to the factory in Konjic, which sorts 95 percent of municipal waste without any consequences for the environment, even though it is located on the outskirts of the city. Similar factories exist in Novi Sad, Mostar, Tuzla, Obrenovac, Čakovec...

Thus, we were convinced on the spot that their technology meets the strictest European standards, there are no incinerators and the famous tubs for storing municipal waste, which means that it does not endanger the surrounding population in any way.

The factory in Konjic daily selects plastic, cardboard, paper, PET and MET packaging, textiles, glass and metal, of which 40 percent is municipal waste, and all material is exported...

The organic part of 25 percent is transformed by innovative technology into compost, which is used to fertilize green areas. The rest of 35 percent is processed into RDF fuel, which has a thermal power of 4.000 kilocalories and is used in thermal power plants or cement plants, and a solar power plant is installed on the roof of the factory.

This technology adapts to the population, not the other way around.

Local self-governments in Montenegro cannot do anything for municipal waste disposal, until the Ministry of Ecology and Spatial Planning determines the location. Since a general plan for the whole country is being developed, it is a chance to determine an adequate area for municipal waste disposal - one for Nikšić, Plužine, Žabljak and Savnik, and another for Kotor, Tivat, Budva and Herceg Novi.

For projects and the construction of factories with this technology without incinerators, financing is provided from EU funds. Its advantages are recognized in Brussels because it meets the conditions of the so-called of the circular economy and from municipal waste creates a new useful value, that is, raw materials for processing and energy. That is why EU funds provide 70 to 80 percent of grants.

I believe that all municipalities will be interested in building such factories on their territory, because in this way the costs of transporting municipal waste to a distance of 20 to 40 kilometers are reduced, and there is no need to build transfer stations. They would employ 70 to 80 workers in the long term, in a self-sustaining business entity that exports 70 percent of its production.

Due to all the advantages of this kind of waste disposal, I suggest that interested citizens visit one of the mentioned factories with me and assess for themselves, without political or other intermediaries, whether they bring harm or benefit.

The author is a B.Sc. Eng.