Construction of unit for treatment of dangerous waste in 2011 – the most secure location is sought for storage

Construction of the unit for storing and physical-chemical treatment of dangerous waste in Serbia should commence in 2011. The most secure location for the unit is being sought at the moment. Once completed, it will be able to process 43,000 tons of dangerous matters per year. The unit will be controlled by local experts and about 150 people will be working in it.

This was announced by Aleksandar Vesić, the Assistant of the Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning of Serbia, for daily newspaper “Novosti”.

- EU will set aside 14m EUR for construction of this unit, of which surface will have to cover up to 20 ha in order to be in accordance with European standards - says Vesić.

- It will be treating non-organic waste, that is, the waste that contains chromates, acid and base solutions, galvanic liquid matters such as metal salts, and other solid matters.

The representatives of ministries of defense and environment have visited several potential locations for construction of the storage for keeping and treatment of dangerous industrial waste.

- The most important thing is that we find the location as soon as possible. The contractor for construction of the unit for treatment of dangerous waste will be selected on the international tender, in accordance with the EU procedures – Vesić explains.

According to the EU standards, possible location can not be situated on the territory of protected natural goods or in the vicinity of a settlement, and it must have access to sewerage.

Although there are no official data on the volume of industrial and medical dangerous waste, it is estimated that Serbia annually produces about 460,000 tons of this waste.