Ivana Stankovic

Master of Science Thesis 2005/06
KTH, Stockholm
City Sanitation trucks during the night. If in some case the truck wouldn’t operate during one
night the trash would remain with additional piled the next evening. With narrow sidewalks and
many people passing by the area looked dirty. Also it attracted rats and pigeons.
Nowadays there are almost enough containers which now face a different problem – not defined
space to keep them. So the streets look a little bit more clean but still untidy. Due to the lack of
parking spaces and the wish of the City Parking Services to acquire as much as possible of free
space for parking, garbage containers are most often blocking the pedestrian pathway (Pic 31
and 32). They are also blocking the visibility of the drivers at the crossroad, which is a cause of
many accidents. Unfortunately, the right cause of the accident is never determined but the
costs go to the drivers.
Nowadays, in Belgrade there is no official centre for garbage separation, let alone a recycling
company. However, there are companies that recycle paper, glass, and metal but they rarely
have collecting sites, so people are obliged to take the waste to the companies themselves.
According to a research study performed by Ms Jana Babic on willingness of people living in
New Belgrade to separate garbage for recycling, in New Belgrade 85% of people were willing to
do it, while 8% refused and 7% were not sure. 61 It means that even without any organized
campaigns, people are aware of the waste problems and are willing to contribute to solve the
waste problem.
While old containers were
made from metal, new
containers are made from
reinforced plastic, which in
case of fire burn and melt
down. It happens often,
sometimes as an accident
and most often it is
intentional, typically caused
by children. The
environmental impact is high
since everything in the
container as well as the
container itself causes
significant air pollution from
burning. Furthermore,
containers are designed to be
easily completely open (the
top of the container slides),
which adds to the possibility
of catching fire. They are on
Pic 33 Ransacking containers
Pic 34 Searching for
something useful
wheels so they can be easily moved, which is a cause for their often being misplaced and
blocking pedestrian pathways. In addition, because of the easy access to the garbage, they are
often ransacked by homeless and poor people (Pic 33).
Still, in the core centre of the city due to the unpleasant appearance, containers are located in
alleys so garbage is still thrown out to the streets (usually left next to a light pole, post
61 File downloaded from the internet site:
http://www.vibilia.co.yu/nemacki/izvestaj/0407/smece_tabele_160103.pdf, date retrieved 2005-11-30
Ivana Stankovic
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