Your refrigerator is broken, you buy a new one, you pay someone to remove it. That someone comes, takes the money and then throws it somewhere where no one is looking - in some wild dump, in a river, in the forest. Yes, it is not exactly according to the law, but that way there are no additional costs.
For years in Serbia, we have seen old washing machines, boilers or tires on the street and in nature, even floating in rivers. This situation could return, warn waste management and recycling experts. Because, Government of Serbia has suspended incentive funds for the treatment of special streams as of January 1 waste, so recycling companies stopped accepting old tires, electrical and electronic waste, as well as used batteries.
"Vremena" sources say that companies dealing with waste processing are directly affected, that they are in a panic and are currently having crisis meetings, because they do not know how to continue working in the future. Without state aid, they have no interest in doing this business, because they would be in the red. Those who have small businesses in this branch are mostly scared and fear that they will be trampled if they say anything publicly, the sources of the newsroom add. This threatens the system that directly employs around 15.000 workers, and indirectly another 13.000, as well as professional jobs that are in the public interest.
lv11-tire-999867_1280Photo: Samson Jay/Pixabay
Where does the eco-tax go?
In the meantime, everyone who has a company in Serbia, even the smallest one, still pays the eco tax, which was introduced in 2019. This fee, i.e. the fee for the protection and improvement of the environment, is a mandatory annual fee for all legal entities, entrepreneurs, including lump sums and associations in Serbia, and was introduced according to the "polluter pays" principle. The amount of the tax is from 5.000 dinars, and it goes up to two million, depending on the activity and income of the company.
So the question is - where does the money go, which should be used for the disposal of hazardous and electronic waste? In the countries of the European Union, on the other hand, the states provide enormous aid for recyclers, which goes up to 60 percent, because this is simply a business of public interest.
No calculation
According to Kristina Cvejanov, an expert on waste management and recycling for Biznis.rs, the income that recyclers can now earn from the sale of separated raw materials does not cover the real costs of collection, transport and treatment.
"Treatment of these types of waste is simply not profitable without systemic support from the state. Costs are higher than income, which means that without subsidies or a model of extended producer responsibility, the system cannot function," says Tsvejanov.
According to her, Serbia has used the incentive model for years as a way to ensure that waste from households and businesses is disposed of properly. With the repeal of the regulation, the recycling industry found itself, practically overnight, in a situation where it operates without a financial basis for the treatment of the most expensive categories of waste.
Where will vuklanizer tires go
Operators holding waste treatment licenses have stopped accepting recyclable hazardous waste since January 1, some confirmed to N1 on condition of anonymity. They said that the work of a good part of the industry could be threatened, because numerous manufacturers of tires, electrical and electronic products, as well as vulcanizers, auto repair shops and white goods services have no one to hand over their waste from January 1.
Landfill_06Illegal landfill / Photo: FoNet
"There are two possible scenarios, one that involves their difficult work and increased waste storage costs in the first phase and a complete blockade of work in the second phase. The second scenario is that they, with some kind of blessing from the state, stop fulfilling their legally established obligations, i.e. that in addition to the already huge amounts of other types of waste that are uncontrollably disposed of in landfills and in the environment, we get additional amounts of waste, which contain numerous harmful substances, with incalculable consequences for the environment and public health," they stated. for N1.
