Prilep wins a regional circular economy award, the mayor says 49% of residents sort their packaging waste

The Municipality of Prilep has received the "Municipal Circular Leadership Award 2026", a prize for municipal leadership in the circular economy. According to Mayor Dejan Prodanoski, the international jury picked Prilep as the most successful in this category at Western Balkans level, out of 63 applications. The award was presented at an event in Pristina.

The municipality's main argument is a single number: 49 percent of residents already sort packaging waste in their homes. "That is thousands of households, thousands of personal decisions and one city moving towards a cleaner and more sustainable future," Prodanoski said.

The figure is impressive, if it holds up to scrutiny. The announcements don't make clear how it was measured - with a survey, with collection data or with an estimate. And the difference matters. It is one thing for a resident to put the plastic in a separate bag, and quite another for that bag not to end up in the truck with the rest of the rubbish.

The municipality says it will keep working on secondary sorting infrastructure with a capacity of up to 10 tonnes per hour, a system for collecting and separating different types of waste, solutions for composting and for treating construction rubble, as well as the rehabilitation of the existing landfill. Those are the real yardsticks: when the line starts working, how many tonnes go through it, and how much less waste ends up at the landfill.

"Waste doesn't have to be the end of a process, but the beginning of new value," says Prodanoski. A nice sentence for a plaque. Whether the tonnes back it up, the landfill will tell.