SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT MODEL-CASE STUDY: NOVI PAZAR

Sustainable waste management started to be implemented in Serbia in 2009. Before that, waste management was reduced to a collection and disposal of waste in unsanitary landfill. The situation is similar in the municipality of Novi Pazar. The landfill, which was built with the intention of being a sanitary landfill, has lost that status. Instead, it has become a risk to human health and the environment. At the same time, each year a new amount of waste is generated and disposed of without any plan. On the other hand, questions arise about the optimisation of waste disposal costs and its more efficient use. This paper describes the current status of waste management, the amount of waste generated and its composition. Special attention is given to the existing landfill. Based on the data analysis, an advanced waste management model is made to include the existing legislation, the economic feasibility and sustainable development principles. It is shown that with an integrated waste management which includes landfill mining and sorting of old and new generated waste is possible to reduce both the amount of disposed waste and negative impact to the environment and achieve economic profit through material recovery.