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Friday, 25 September 2026
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Recycling guide

First steps to stop living in rubbish

Rubbish doesn't disappear when you throw it away - it just moves. This guide is the first step: where the nearest container is, what goes in which colour, and which containers have been sitting full for days. We draw the map from Pakomak's public data and refresh it every day.

1.458 containers on the map 103 vending machines data updated every day

Where is the nearest container?

Pick what you're carrying and allow location access. You get the three nearest containers, with the distance and walking directions.

What are you carrying?

Without location access we can't find the nearest one. Allow it in your browser and try again, or look it up on the map below.

Your location is outside Macedonia, and Pakomak only has containers here.

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The nearest one is farther than 800 metres. We keep count - how many people have no container nearby is a number somebody needs to see.

Nearest to you

We don't store your location.

Map of every container

Above 80% full

Loading the map...

What goes in which colour

Green - glass

Glass bottles from water, juice, beer and wine, jars of every size, small glass bottles from medicines, cosmetics and perfume.

Good to know

The green container is for glass packaging. Window glass, mirrors and ceramics are not packaging and don't belong in it. Careful with broken glass - don't cut yourself.

Yellow - plastic and cans

Plastic bottles from water and juice, beer and soft-drink cans, food tins, packaging from detergents, shampoos and cleaning products, film and plastic wrapping, plastic bags, plastic cups and plates.

Good to know

No need to rinse anything - packaging gets washed during processing, it only has to be empty. The label can stay on the bottle as well.

Blue - paper and Tetra Pak

Cardboard boxes of every kind, pizza and egg boxes, Tetra Pak cartons from milk and juice, shoe and chocolate boxes, food packaging, newspapers, notebooks, letters, bills, flyers, posters and old calendars.

Good to know

Tetra Pak is a composite, but it goes in the blue one. Paper should be free of food leftovers, so empty the pizza box first. Flatten big boxes - that leaves room for everyone else.

Which containers sit full

Pakomak has sensors on its containers that measure how full they are every day. Its own system flags a container for emptying at just 40% for glass and 50% for plastic and paper. We count something much later: when a container passes 80% and stays there. A full container is an invitation for the rubbish to end up next to it.

Who empties them? In Skopje - the public utility JP Komunalna higiena, in Kumanovo - JP Čistota i zelenilo, and in the other municipalities collectors under contract with Pakomak. That is why each municipality below shows who is responsible for it.

Glass

25

containers are more than 80% full right now

  • 250 sat above 80% for at least 7 days in a row
  • 162 sat above 80% for 30 or more days in a row
  • 1.016 / 1.178 sensors reported in the last week

Plastic and cans

39

containers are more than 80% full right now

  • 134 sat above 80% for at least 7 days in a row
  • 46 sat above 80% for 30 or more days in a row
  • 139 / 215 sensors reported in the last week

Paper

20

containers are more than 80% full right now

  • 45 sat above 80% for at least 7 days in a row
  • 33 sat above 80% for 30 or more days in a row
  • 47 / 65 sensors reported in the last week

Full right now - longest first

Where Container Above 80%
Branko Bogdanski Gucman, Kumanovo Kumanovo Plastic and cans 296 days
Ulica Todor Cipovski-Merdzhan Tetovo Glass 282 days
Maršal Tito Prilep Plastic and cans 282 days
Mateja Matevski, Skopje Karpoš Glass 234 days
Blagoj Iliev Gune, Kumanovo Kumanovo Plastic and cans 217 days
1511 10, Skopje Kisela Voda Plastic and cans 217 days
Strašo Pindžur, Kavadarci Kavadarci Paper 217 days
Kaj 5 ti Noemvri, Star Dojran Dojran Plastic and cans 217 days
Ulica Marshal Tito 3 Pehčevo Glass 159 days
Štip Štip Glass 128 days
11 ti Noemvri, Kumanovo Kumanovo Paper 124 days
11-ti Noemvri, Kumanovo Kumanovo Paper 113 days
Ulica Biljanovska Kumanovo Plastic and cans 82 days
Ulica Joska Jordanoski 47 Prilep Glass 81 days
11-ti Oktomvri, Kumanovo Kumanovo Paper 79 days
Moša Pijade, Kumanovo Kumanovo Paper 79 days
Goce Stojčevski Ambarče, Skopje Karpoš Glass 71 days
R1102 Veles Paper 66 days
Olimpiska pateka, Skopje Karpoš Plastic and cans 65 days
Bulevar Kočo Racin, Skopje Centar Plastic and cans 54 days
R1102 Veles Plastic and cans 54 days
Ulica Dimo Gavroski Kara 29 Karpoš Glass 50 days
3 Makedonska Udarna Brigada 110, Kumanovo Kumanovo Plastic and cans 44 days
Bogovinje Bogovinje Paper 40 days
Strašo Pindžur, Kavadarci Kavadarci Plastic and cans 37 days
Bogovinje Bogovinje Paper 36 days
Partizanska, Ohrid Ohrid Glass 35 days
Štip Štip Plastic and cans 34 days
Dimitar Vlahov, Ohrid Ohrid Plastic and cans 33 days
M. Sokolovski, Štip Štip Paper 32 days

Municipalities: how much of the time their containers are above 80%

Period: the last 12 months

  1. Debar 47,0% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 11 containers

  2. Kumanovo 32,3% of the days

    Emptied by: JP Čistota i zelenilo Kumanovo (city utility) · 40 containers

  3. Saraj 24,7% of the days

    Emptied by: JP Komunalna higiena Skopje (city utility) · 10 containers

  4. Kavadarci 24,1% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 22 containers

  5. Sopište 20,8% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 22 containers

  6. Delčevo 20,5% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 17 containers

  7. Gazi Baba 20,4% of the days

    Emptied by: JP Komunalna higiena Skopje (city utility) · 92 containers

  8. Ohrid 18,3% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 62 containers

  9. Karpoš 17,9% of the days

    Emptied by: JP Komunalna higiena Skopje (city utility) · 109 containers

  10. Brvenica 14,2% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 9 containers

  11. Kičevo 13,1% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 19 containers

  12. Kisela Voda 12,1% of the days

    Emptied by: JP Komunalna higiena Skopje (city utility) · 65 containers

  13. Berovo 12,0% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 25 containers

  14. Štip 11,8% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 100 containers

  15. Bogovinje 11,6% of the days

    Emptied by: a collector contracted by Pakomak · 14 containers

How we count

We take the last reading of every day. If a sensor misses a day, the streak breaks - a dead sensor can't invent a full container. Sensors that jump straight from 0% to 100% and back, or show the same number for months, are left out of the rankings: that's a fault in the device, not the collector's failure. Municipalities are ranked by the share of days their containers spent above 80% over the last 12 months.

52 sensors with unreliable readings are left out of the rankings.

How far you are from a container

Everyone who presses "Find the nearest" tells us how far they are from a container. If the nearest one is more than 800 metres away - about ten minutes on foot with a full bag - we count it. We don't store the location, only the distance.

Glass

0

farther than 800 m

0 searches

Plastic and cans

0

farther than 800 m

0 searches

Paper

0

farther than 800 m

0 searches

Vending machines

0

farther than 800 m

0 searches

Vending machines: bottles and cans for points

You can also return plastic bottles and cans to Pakomak's reverse vending machines in supermarkets. Download the free Ecomak app, scan your personal barcode on the machine and feed in the bottles and cans. You earn green points, which you can swap for supermarket discount vouchers, discounts on utility bills or donations.

Bottles go in cap-end towards the machine's opening. If a machine suddenly stops accepting them, its bag may simply be full - Pakomak admits as much itself.

103 vending machines · 96 locations

What about e-waste, batteries and old clothes

E-waste

An old fridge, TV or phone doesn't go in any of the three containers. Nula Otpad collects e-waste for free from your doorstep, anywhere in the country: the appliance must be complete, disconnected from power and water, and easy to reach. Book a pickup on 070 236 000 or through the form at nulaotpad.com.mk. Elkolekt runs free drop-off points in primary schools and municipal depots, with a green line on 071 263 500.

When you buy a new appliance, the shop has to take the old one of the same type back for free, and if it delivers to your home, it must offer to take the old one away. Shops larger than 400 m² must accept small appliances up to 25 centimetres even if you buy nothing. In Skopje you can also take large household waste yourself to Komunalna higiena's recycling yards in Karpoš and Vardarište.

Batteries

Batteries go neither in mixed rubbish nor in the yellow container. Nula Otpad is licensed for batteries and accumulators as well, so it takes them together with e-waste. Collect them in a jar at home and hand them over with your next old appliance.

Clothes and textiles

Karpoš has containers for old clothes and textiles at all ten of its primary schools, at its kindergartens and outside the municipal building. By September 2026 they had collected 3,500 kilograms. Clothes that can still be worn are better given away.

What happens next

The three colours are only the beginning. According to the State Statistical Office, Macedonia collected 639,668 tonnes of municipal waste in 2025, and 99.8% of it ended up in landfill.

Sorted waste takes a different road. Pakomak writes that the country has little capacity for recycling paper and plastic, and none at all for glass packaging, so most of the collected packaging waste is exported.

That's why it pays not to mix: one bag of mixed rubbish in the yellow container soils the plastic around it. And when a container sits full for weeks, even the best sorting doesn't help - which is why we track those too.

Frequently asked questions

Press "Find the nearest" at the top of the page, pick a colour and allow location access. You'll get the three nearest containers with the distance and walking directions. All of them are on the map too.

No. According to Pakomak, packaging is washed during processing - it just has to be empty, with no liquid left inside.

No. The materials are separated during processing, so the label can stay. What matters most is that the bottle is empty.

In the blue container. Tetra Pak is a composite, but Pakomak collects it together with paper.

In the yellow container, together with the other plastic.

Don't leave your waste next to it - check the next nearest one on the map. Pakomak asks for container problems to be reported in writing with the exact location, while the mess around containers is the responsibility of the municipality's public utility company.

Container and vending machine data: Pakomak (public GIS map). Updated: 25.09.2026