The rehabilitation works of the Zakršnica city landfill in Podbišće, which has long been considered one of the ecological black spots, located on the banks of the Tara River and on the very edge of the Biogradska gora National Park, are entering their final phase.
That work began two years ago, and as the president of the Mojkovac Municipal Assembly told "Vijesti", Marko Janketić, the landfill is currently undergoing “waste recomposition and the formation of sanitary vats”.
"Sanitary bathtubs are being made with waterproof materials installed at the bottom in accordance with EU landfill directives. This includes coating with clay, installing PE (polyethylene) foil, and installing Trisoplast material. This prevents leachate from flowing into the Tara River," Janketić explains to Vijesti.
According to him, a bank fortification, a protective embankment made of gabions, has been built to protect the landfill from the impact of high waters of the Tara River. Degassing pipes for methane collection and a methane incinerator will also be installed, he explains.
"Also, a collector system for collecting and purifying wastewater is planned. At the end of the rehabilitation, the existing landfill will be biologically rehabilitated, i.e. the landfill will be recultivated and planted with grass, where the area at the entrance to the city will be transformed into a green area. By rehabilitating the landfill, we are solving a decades-old problem that has burdened the citizens of Mojkovac and had a negative impact on the health of the population. In a very short time, the Municipality has made great strides in the field of environmental protection," claims the President of the Municipal Assembly.
As announced at the beginning of the renovation, the renovation will cost around 3,5 million euros. The works, as the then minister said, Ana Novaković Đurović, are being implemented within the framework of the project “Industrial Waste Management and Cleaning”. Before the start of the rehabilitation, the Mojkovac landfill was a formally unregulated waste disposal site, which created multiple problems for the environment.
Janketić says that a transfer station and recycling yard have started operating in Mojkovac. He explains that there are many challenges, and they are primarily organizational and financial. For now, waste from Mojkovac, after being processed at the recycling station, is transported to Podgorica.
"Now the collected mixed municipal waste is transported to the recycling yard and transfer station, where the mixed municipal waste is compacted or pressed into closed type Abroll 30 m³ containers, which are later transported by special vehicle to the Podgorica landfill 'Livade'. In the transfer station facility, workers separate recyclable waste (cardboard, glass, PET packaging...) on the sorting line in order to reduce the amount of mixed municipal waste, and thus the costs of transporting and disposing of waste at the Livade landfill," explains Janketić.
This, he claims, is a huge burden on the local budget, with the costs of waste disposal, fuel, labor, electricity, equipment, depreciation, etc. exceeding 350.000 euros annually. Janketić reminds that the local parliament has not increased the price of garbage during this mandate, and it is 0,006 euros per square meter for households in urban areas. Households in the rural part of the municipality do not pay for the collection of municipal waste, and the costs are borne by the Gradac utility company.
The recycling yard in Mojkovac was built in 2020, and the technical acceptance was carried out at the end of 2022.
In October last year, Mojkovac received 500 bins for sorting recyclable waste and a baling press, and the initiative is part of a donation from the European Union, which is being implemented through the project "BEST Cooperation in Waste Management - Towards a Sustainable Environment". In addition to the donation of new equipment, two documents were developed for the municipality of Mojkovac within the project, namely the Local Waste Management Plan and the Situation Analysis and Roadmap for a Circular Economy.
Bonus video:
