New trucks, tankers and street sweepers were lined up today on the car park in front of the Boris Trajkovski arena. The announcement said: at last, a solution for Skopje's rubbish. The number left standing once the event was over is different from the one that echoed through the build-up.

Of the vehicles on display, Skopje gets around 27. The rest go to other cities.

Transport minister Aleksandar Nikoloski explained that these are 19 multifunctional trucks of various types, 9 specialised tankers for washing streets and 21 multifunctional cleaning vehicles. Vehicles will go to Skopje, Kumanovo, Prilep, Strumica, Štip, Ohrid, Tetovo, Negotino, Kičevo, Debar and Veles.

Where the money came from

The procurement was made through the World Bank, which has been running a street renovation and construction project for five years. Since not all the funds for that purpose had been spent, after last year's waste situation the idea emerged to redirect those 5.5 million euros of unused money towards rubbish management. The vehicles presented today cost 4.2 million euros.

So the waste machinery for eleven municipalities is financed from money left over from a different project. Not from a plan, not from a budget line for municipal sanitation - from a surplus.

The state of things the mayor admits to

Skopje mayor Orce Đorđievski laid out the figures himself: when they took over the municipal sanitation company, only 17 vehicles were working. Now there are around 50, but with a caveat that says everything.

"For many years no new vehicles were provided and on a daily basis three, five, seven, sometimes even 10 vehicles go out of service on us - because of breakdowns," Đorđievski said.

Ten vehicles a day out of action from a fleet of fifty is twenty percent of it. That is not a fleet, that is a queue at the workshop.

Đorđievski also announced that the City of Skopje is buying additional specialised vehicles with its own funds, along with more than 3,300 new bins, for which the appeals procedure is in its final stage. Two transfer stations have also been secured - one in Gazi Baba - which should cut the time spent transporting waste.

The sanitation company said that during August its crews collected and transported 14,200 tonnes of mixed municipal waste from households, plus 2,740 cubic metres of waste dumped on public and traffic surfaces.

Those 2,740 cubic metres are the key figure. That is waste that was not in a bin - it was on the street, on the pavement, on a green space. No new truck solves that; it is a question of how many bins exist and how far apart they are.

Which is why the announced 3,300 bins are the bigger story than the twenty-seven vehicles. Except that they are still stuck in an appeals procedure, while the trucks are already on the car park.