Heads of regions and municipalities will have problems! It’s garbage
Slovakia faces a new legislative obligation from January 1 of the following year. Exported waste, especially from residents of houses and apartments, must be treated before disposal.
As of the new year, any mixed municipal waste that is not treated cannot be disposed of in landfills. The mentioned obligation results from the directive of the European Community.
The given obligation is to be fulfilled only if necessary for the construction of technological facilities that can stabilize the given waste. And here is the biggest problem. More than 85 percent of Slovakia does not have available technologies that can process the collected waste according to the soon-to-be-valid directive.
And this despite the fact that most companies have already submitted projects for the construction of the necessary technological equipment. “In two years, the state administration is not allowed to assess the construction permit for the given projects,” it is written in a joint statement of the Association of Cities and Towns of Slovakia (ZMOS), the Union of Slovak Cities (ÚMS), the Association of Entrepreneurs in Waste Management (APOH), the Association of Public Works Organizations (ZOVP) and the Association of Waste Industry (ZOP).
As the statement goes on to say, the normal process of EIA (environmental impact assessment) and construction proceedings in Slovakia takes 4 to 5 years. “And that in view of the personnel undersizing of the state administration and the obstruction of pseudo-activists”who abuse loopholes in the EIA process and drag out the proceedings for several years,” the named organizations state.
At the same time, they disappear almost 100 percent of the market in the area of cities and municipalities and collection companies. They have expressed their serious concerns to the Ministry of the Environment several times. According to them, two years is very little for the introduction of this obligation. That is why they asked for a postponement of two more years. The given directive would thus come into effect here in January 2025. By this time, it was already very likely that the majority of submitted projects would have a building permit and technological facilities would be built.
To this day, it has not happened and the current leadership of the ministry has not done anything despite the announced promises. Which, according to the named associations, is a big time bomb. The new directive and with it a new obligation to bear the waste management system by up to 100 percent! As a result, municipalities will have to demand this obligation, which creates another problem. “The procurement process for larger municipalities is several months behind schedule, so it is all necessary for all places to insist that no municipality is obligated, given that no provision is necessary for the obligation,” says ZMOS, APOH, ZVOP, ZOP and ÚMS.
Slovakia may thus realistically find itself in a situation where it will not be able to dispose of residents’ waste from the first of January. Waste will stop being collected and disposed of. “Slovakia will become one big black waste dump with huge economic, health and financial risks,” organizations warn in their statement.
At the same time, they also warn that if Budaj’s office does not comply with their demand, they will consider declaring a strike alert. This can literally be a disaster, as shown by cases from abroad, for example from French Paris and Italian Naples.
“In our opinion, the stated situation is a lack of expertise in the preparation and assessment of legislative changes on the part of the Ministry of the Environment and absence of a relevant discussion with experts on the side of waste producers or specialists in the given sector. Mandatory waste treatment is only one of a whole range of problems in the waste management sector. Therefore, we ask the Ministry of the Environment to first establish a crisis team composed of representatives of the Ministry, as well as representatives of ZMOS, ÚMS, APOH, ZOVP and ZOP, which reviews the current situation after the latest legislative changes and, together with the Ministry of the Environment, proposes the necessary changes and strategies for further development,” the organization concludes its statement.