Skopje Swaps Its 3,200-Liter Bins for 3,300 Smaller Ones: Gjorgjievski Claims He Paid Half the Price

The first delivery of a total of 3,300 new waste containers has arrived in Skopje, and they are already being placed around the neighborhoods. Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski says this is the biggest container purchase in the city's history, and that the new bins will replace broken and worn-out ones while also increasing the number of waste disposal points.

The new containers are smaller, with a capacity of 1,100 liters. They replace the large 3,200-liter ones bought under former mayor Petre Šilegov. A few months ago Dragi Mitkovski, director of the public utility "Komunalna Higiena", was already arguing that those big bins were part of the problem with overflowing containers: they can only be lifted by special trucks, and of the four such vehicles the utility owns, only one works.

According to Mitkovski, the swap should be finished within a month. More bins will be placed in parts of the city with new apartment buildings, while the metal containers are meant for spots where bins keep getting set on fire, and for businesses. Sixty containers for separating glass have also been bought. Next week, the mayor says, the new garbage trucks procured by the Ministry of Transport and Communications will also be in service.

Gjorgjievski stressed one more thing: "The same containers my predecessors paid 18,600 denars each for, we are buying at half the price." If that is true, it is good news for the city budget. But a claim like that also needs a document - the tender, the unit price and the specification - so anyone can check for themselves whether like is being compared with like.

The mayor also warned that there will be zero tolerance for construction rubble and bulky waste dumped in and next to the containers. That is the part no procurement can fix. The new bins will only solve the problem if the trucks come regularly, and rubble and old furniture stop piling up next to them.