The solid waste collected in the city, approximately 190,000 tonnes a year, will be sent for recycling, either the refuse is sorted at the source or not. This will enable to recycle over 10% of the weight of waste or 40-45% of the volume in 2023. The municipality will sign a contract for the provision of waste sorting services with an expert business entity, IPN reports.

The Chisinau City Hall said the contract will be signed by the cleanup company “Autosalubritate” and the company “ABS”, which won the public procurement contest. It is a contract for the provision of services to sort the waste that is collected daily in Chisinau and its suburbs. The goal is to increase the quantity of recycled waste and to diminish the amount of waste stored at the landfill in Țânțăreni.

The five-year contract will be signed the next few days. At the initial stage, there will be recycled paper, cardboard, plastic, metal and glass. Initially, “Autosalubritate” will pay 120 lei/tone including VAT to the operator.

At the second stage that will be launched in about a year and a half, the sorting company will be obliged to identity refuse-derived fuel for recycling. This will enable to recycle over 20% of the weight of waste collected in the city (over 38,000 tonnes) or about 70% of the waste transmitted for sorting.

The total sum of the contract is 217.5 million lei including VAT. The sorting company will recycle all types of waste at its own expense, including rubber tires and furniture.

“Chisinau will become the first city in Moldova, which will recycle such a large volume of waste and will achieve the objectives set at national level. Chisinau will become the city with the highest recycling coefficient in the region. The given solution will help to immediately deal with the waste sorting problems, while the Chisinau City Hall will meanwhile develop other sorting and recycling solutions that will enable to increase the refuse sorting and recycling coefficient. Only waste with a potentially diminished environmental pollution rate will be taken to the landfill in Țânțăreni,” the Chisinau City Hall noted in a press release.

The municipality said a campaign will be conducted to inform about the waste sorting method.