Executive summary
The total amount of municipal waste generated in Montenegro was 339 000 tonnes in 2019.
Despite a stagnating population, the amount of waste per capita has increased by 8 % over the
past 5 years to 545 kg per capita, which is higher than the EU average. The share of
Montenegro’s population covered by public waste collection services has been slightly
increasing over the last 5 years, from 82 % in 2015 to 86 % in 2019, although there are
differences within the country. Increasing the population coverage is mostly hindered by
infrastructural and operational limitations that require investments or additional funds to
address.
The legal framework in Montenegro is guided by the Law on Waste Management, which aims to
transpose the EU waste legislation, but the implementation is lacking. The adoption of the new
Law on Waste Management is planned for 2021 and aims to further harmonise Montenegrin
waste legislation with EU legislation. Action is especially needed to set up infrastructure for
separate waste collection and recycling and to provide adequate financial and human resources,
including those for inspection activities. Currently, the targets do not match the waste
management performance. In the new Law on Waste Management, it will be important to set
realistic targets that are underpinned by implementation strategies, including planning and
financing of investments, building up capacities and ensuring proper enforcement mechanisms.
Although extended producer responsibility (EPR) is prescribed in the Law on Waste
Management, it has not been implemented. As the new Law on Waste Management is
anticipated to be adopted in 2021, it is expected that an EPR scheme will be implemented
between 2022 and 2024.
The local municipality is responsible for organising waste management activities in its territory
and manages the entire process of collection and disposal of waste. Of the waste, 90 % is
collected by public utility companies (PUCs) and about 10 % is collected by authorised private
companies specialised in the collection of specific waste streams. The PUCs are also responsible
for collecting service fees from households and businesses to cover the costs. However, the low
fee collection rate, combined with the difficulties of pursuing non-payers, has an impact on the
financial performance of municipalities. Currently the service fee is based on the number of
household members, although the PUCs are demanding a shift towards a service fee based on
the amount of waste collected. The shift is hindered by it currently being perceived as too
complex for municipalities to organise and manage such a fee system.
The effectiveness of separate waste collection is still very low because recyclable waste is often
not sorted after collection and there is no financial incentive for citizens or businesses to sort
their waste at source.
Most of the collected waste ends up in municipal landfills. There are initiatives to either upgrade
these landfills to sanitary landfills or close them, and to develop recycling centres with sorting
facilities and transfer stations. Still, the operational and financial effectiveness of waste sorting
and processing is low in Montenegro because of a lack of adequate waste inputs.