Skopje, 30 September 2025 (MIA) - My plan is a Skopje without illegal landfills, and the time has finally come to treat waste as a resource. Vardarishte is just one of the locations that is an illegal landfill, in addition to being a transfer station, which has been seriously neglected in these four years, and no interventions were made to shut it down as an illegal landfill so that it can have the purpose it should have and has had for years - i.e. a transfer station, SDSM Skopje mayoral candidate Kaja Shukova said Tuesday.

In a statement to the media at the Vardarishte illegal landfill, Shukova stressed that within Skopje and within the Skopje region, this location is projected to continue to be a transfer station.

"What is a transfer station? It is not just transfer from a smaller to a larger truck and the waste ending up at Drisla (landfill). It is a serious system where waste is sorted and consolidated, of course in cooperation with all other partners that are part of this system, because it is not just the City, it is not just the municipalities. There is also cooperation with the private sector here, with the non-governmental sector, which are part of an integrated waste management system," said Shukova. 

She added that waste separation must be seriously considered and therefore, the City must offer citizens new equipment, primarily bins, containers and trucks, which is included in her program, and which will work exclusively with sorted waste so as to avoid situations seen today when some citizens sort their waste only for it to end up in the same trucks that simply deposit waste at Drisla.

In response to a reporter's question on whether it is possible for Vardarishte to get a new look and purpose, Shukova said Vardarishte can be organized as a space that will be functionally managed, i.e. it can be a transfer station according to European standards, instead of what it currently is.

"This location must be heavily fenced off and cleared up, and in the future, in accordance with the plans of both the state and the City, in line with the waste management strategy, become a modern transfer station. This means that what we collect from the bins and containers at the level of the City of Skopje, will be further sorted and consolidated here, and then go for reuse. I say, finally, as little waste as possible should be deposited at Drisla, and then we will get Drisla to have a capacity that will meet the needs of the City of Skopje. Currently, 99 percent of the waste collected in Skopje is deposited at Drisla. These are not the European practices we strive towards, and we strive to reach zero waste in 10 to 15 years, to fully utilize waste," Shukova said.

Asked about the daily protests over waste burning at Vardarishte, Shukova said burning waste at Vardarishte seriously affects air pollution.

"One of the five or six factors that seriously affect air pollution is certainly the burning of waste, especially plastic and certain other waste materials, causing the creation of organic substances that are seriously threatening citizens' health. Therefore, we must not allow waste burning at Vardarishte again. We have been reiterating that Vardarishte should be fenced off, and have round-the-clock security. There is a way to manage Vardarishte, it is included in my program and in parallel with this way of managing Vardarishte, we should go through all the segments of waste management. This system is complex, it is not simple, but I believe that serious engagement, serious investments, will result in progress in the area of ​​waste management at the level of the City of Skopje in a short time," said SDSM Skopje mayoral candidate Kaja Shukova. 

Photo: MIA