Municipality and "Pastrimi" clash over waste collection bills in Pristina

2025-02-05 22:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Municipality and "Pastrimi" clash over waste collection bills in

Following the declaration of a state of emergency regarding waste management in the capital on February 3, Pristina residents have now been given conflicting instructions: Who should they pay their waste collection bills to?

On Monday, the mayor of Pristina, Përparim Rama, said that the regional public company "Pastrimi", which is currently the only company engaged in waste collection in Pristina, has not proven to be efficient in this task.

Prompted by this, the Municipality of Pristina today instructed residents of the capital to no longer pay waste collection bills to the company "Pastrimi".

"We inform all citizens of the Municipality of Pristina that they are not obligated to pay the waste collection invoices issued by the KRM "Pastrimi" Company from January 1, 2025," the Municipality's announcement on Facebook states.

Further, the Municipality of Pristina said that payments for this service "must be made through the Municipality of Pristina until a new decision."

But, a few hours later, the company "Pastrimi" called this decision of the Municipality "illegal and arbitrary" and invited the residents of the capital to pay only the company's waste collection bills.

Municipality and "Pastrimi" clash over waste collection bills in

According to them, the Municipality's decision is illegal since no decision has been made by the courts in the country to suspend the waste management regulation and "violates the decisions of the Pristina Assembly and the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning."

"Such an action is not aimed at improving services, but only at creating a chaotic situation to justify awarding a 16 million tender to a private company, to the detriment of the public enterprise and the interests of citizens," the "Pastrimi" company said in a Facebook announcement.

In the published announcement, this company says that it will continue to provide waste collection and management services in the capital.

During 2024, the Municipality also declared a state of emergency and temporarily engaged additional private operators to collect waste in the capital.

But, according to the Mayor, Përparim Rama, a longer-term commitment was made impossible by the opposition assembly members in the Municipality with the approval of a regulation, which "gave the company 'Pastrimi' the exclusive right for this service."

The "Pastrimi" company is a local public enterprise with around 900 employees, which provides waste collection services for several cities in Kosovo, including Pristina.

Petrit Reçica, CEO of the company "Pastrimi", reacted on Monday to the statements of municipal officials, denying criticism that the company he leads is not doing its job properly.

"We are working non-stop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, despite all these challenges, and we do not give up with the only goal of cleaning Pristina from garbage," Reçica wrote on Facebook.

Public enterprises engaged in waste management across Kosovo often face a lack of capacity as a result of the difficulty in collecting debts from citizens.

Workers at these companies have often protested and even held strikes regarding working conditions and low wages. /REL