The three municipalities of Boka Bay are at the forefront in Montenegro when it comes to collecting and separating municipal waste for reuse or recycling.
This is shown by data from the annual report on the implementation of the waste management strategy in Montenegro for the period until 2030, for 2024, and the Proposal for the State Waste Management Plan for the period 2025-2029.
As stated, only six out of 25 Montenegrin municipalities (Podgorica, Bar, Kolašin, Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi) separate recyclable fractions from collected waste for reuse or recycling. Given the largest number of inhabitants and the fact that the services of its sanitary landfill "Livade", where the selection of incoming municipal waste is carried out before disposal, are also used by some other cities in Montenegro, the largest amount of waste separated for reuse or recycling is generated in Podgorica. According to data for 2023, 1.199 tons of paper, 599 tons of plastic, 85 tons of glass and 22 tons of metal were thus separated in the capital city.
However, the three municipalities of Boka together have, in relation to the number of inhabitants, on average even better results than the significantly larger Podgorica. Kotor is in the lead, which in 2023 separated a total of 759 tons of paper, 145 tons of plastic, 176 tons of glass and 835 tons of metal for reuse and recycling. In Herceg Novi, they simultaneously collected and sent for recycling 667 tons of paper and 53 tons of metal, while in the smallest Boka municipality of Tivat, municipal workers in 2023 collected and separated for recycling or reuse a total of 239 tons of paper, seven tons of plastic and three tons of metal.
In 2023, 5.402 tons of green waste were collected from parks and private and public green areas in the three Boka Bay cities, while only 1.865 tons of green waste were collected in Podgorica. However, due to the insufficient capacity of the composting plant of the Kotor Municipal Enterprise in Kavč, which was officially opened a few years ago for the needs of the three Boka Bay municipalities and Budva, last year it only treated green waste collected in the Kotor area. Its processing yielded 120 cubic meters of high-quality humus, which was used to maintain public green areas and parks in that city.
The Government's strategic documents in the field of waste management state that "initial steps have been taken in several municipalities (Herceg Novi, Tivat, Budva and Kotor) towards separate collection of different types of waste and recycling, supported through a series of projects."
"These efforts are far below the required level, so it is necessary to adopt the new Law on Waste Management as soon as possible and prepare state and local management plans of the new generation. Municipal waste management remains a pressing issue for environmental protection (marine and terrestrial) in the coastal area," the documents state, noting that in order to achieve better results, the technical and infrastructural equipment of local utility companies needs to be improved.
For example, Tivat, unlike Kotor and Herceg Novi, does not have a recycling yard or transfer station at all.
Otherwise, transfer stations, in addition to more efficiently separating recyclable fractions from collected municipal waste, primarily serve to reduce the costs of transporting waste to treatment plants, or locations for final disposal.
Although it does not have its own transfer station, which it urgently needs, and due to the negative impact on the environment, the current temporary solution is to transfer waste outdoors on part of the former agricultural area of Montepranzo near the airport, Tivat still collects municipal waste separately, and the remaining mixed municipal waste is transported to the “Možura” sanitary landfill in Bar. Bulky and green waste is also collected and processed separately in Tivat.
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