Mr. Olivier Becht, the esteemed representative of the French government serving as the Minister of Foreign Trade, along with H.E. Pierre Cochard, the French Ambassador to Serbia, Ms. Sara Pavkov, State Secretary of the Ministry of the Environmental Protection, and representatives of Beo Čista Energija visited the facilities within the Vinča Waste Resource Recovery Centre today.
City of Belgrade and the Consortium consisting of French Group Veolia, the Japanese Itochu Corporation and the pan-European Maguerite Fund had partnered in arranging financing with leading financial institutions (EBRD, IFC, and OeEB) to develop PPP Project.
From 2021, Beo Čista Energija provides services for communal waste disposal at the new landfills, recovers construction material from construction and demolition waste, and as of 2022, leachate is treated before flowing towards the Danube River. By the end of 2023 Beo Čista Energija will extend its services and start thermal treatment of the communal waste, and use collected landfill gas to commence production of renewable, “green”, energy and proceed with remediation of the old dumpsite.
Belgrade Waste Management PPP project is the first of its kind in Serbia and is recognized as the Serbian – Japanese – French cooperation project which made it possible that Belgrade is no longer on the global list of capital cities that are disposing communal waste in unsanitary manner.
Mr. Olivier Becht, Minister of Foreign Trade of the Government of France, stated on this occasion:
The economic cooperation between France and Serbia is extremely good, many French companies work in Serbia, and we intend to continue the cooperation. This is a extremely important project for the Serbian economy, Serbian citizens, the City of Belgrade and the environment. Household waste is treated in the landfill complex. In this way, the environment is protected, as well as the Danube, because now clean water from the landfill goes into the river. This is an extremely important step for the energy transition and the best thing we could see from the cooperation between France and Serbia for the benefit of the citizens of Serbia, but also the planet.
Mr. Philippe Thiel, Managing Director of Beo Čista Energija stated on this occasion:
At the end of November, this plant will be handed over to the operator who will manage it for a period of 25 years. There is a need to continue with similar programs both in Belgrade and in Serbia. Because we accepted more than 600,000 tons of waste at the landfill last year alone. The rate of recycling should be increased, the production of waste should be reduced, and what comes to us should be treated. Thanks to this project and optimization, the compensation for households will be less than one percent of the household’s income. When this is compared to other countries in the region and Western Europe, where there are similar technologies, and taking into account what has been done, we managed to make that fee as low as possible.
With construction completion City of Belgrade would be recognized to have the most modern integrated approach to waste management and recovery and will largely contribute to the improvement of ecology in Belgrade by reducing greenhouse emissions equivalent to 210,000 tons of CO2eq.
