Waste management benchmarking: A case study of Serbia

Republic of Serbia expects to open Chapter 27 for negotiation in the coming year. Comparative analysis in this paper shows current situation in waste management which should meet EU standards. The purpose of this paper is to operationalize current knowledge of waste management practices in order to provide a guideline for implemenetation of future projects and hereby make this knowledge applicable in every municipality. The results were compared with a municipality of similar characteristics from Ireland, in order to compare average situation in wate management in Serbia with one EU country. This paper presents the findings of the waste management benchmarking, and it sets out the policy priorities from development perspective that need to be addressed to ensure that Serbia meets own waste management needs. The results obtained in the study showed the obstacles, real costs and time requirements for establishment of an efficient institutional system able to generate strategic decisions and ensure adequate capacities for infrastructure project development and implementation in the waste management sector.