Puconci Waste Management Centre
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The second phase represents a solution to the problem of waste processing and suitable depositing in the area of 27 municipalities in the Pomurje region.
In September 2006, the Municipality of Puconci in cooperation with many interested municipalities started to construct the first phase of the Waste management centre (CERO) Puconci at the abandoned sand pit of KEMA Puconci spreading on the surface of 14 hectars that will be able to take over 40,000 tonnes of waste.
The CERO Puconci project is a comprehensive one carried out in two phases. The first phase of the project worth EUR 3.3 million is co-financed by the EU funds under the ISPA financial instrument. The Financial memorandum with the European Commission for this phase that is being completed was signed already in November 2003. In the first phase, the existing landfill site for residual municipal waste was expanded and more facilities were built, namely a collection centre for separate waste fractions, a collection centre for special (hazardous) waste, a plant for waste sorting and mechanical treatment and a composting plant.
In the programming period 2007-2013, the second phase of the CERO Puconci project will be co-financed.
The decision concerning the second phase worth a bit more than EUR 23 million was issued in December 2010. This project is a part of the Operational Programme of environmental and transport infrastructure development for the period 2007-2013 (OP ETID) and will be co-financed from the Cohesion Fund in the amount of EUR 13.4 million.
The existing landfill of 116,000 m is expected to be expanded with a new landfill cell of the capacity equalling 3 additional 167,000 m , construction of facilities for mechanical-biological treatment and closed composting facilities. In addition, the project involves upgrading of the treatment plant for leachate and other industrial waste water.
By upgrading and modernizing the existing waste management centre the municipalities in this region will solve the problem of waste processing for approximately 125,000 inhabitants and thus avoid costs of potential waste transport to the other region. The new centre will, in the construction phase and during the operation, create new employment opportunities to the local population and the project will also have positive impact on the environment and the people since the centre modernization will mirror in decreased impact on the environment (in particular decreased odour).
The beginnings of the CERO Puconci go back to the end of the 90s where the interested municipalities first signed a letter of intent concerning the centre construction and this was pollowed by the umbrella contract on co-financing the construction and operation of the regional centre. In view of the fact that this is a comprehensive environmental project in terms of finance and the intervention into the environment the importance of the provision of information on the planned construction to the local population needs to be stressed. The municipalities timely started to inform people of the planned construction and the local population agreed with the landfill site construction so that the project suffered no negative media coverage. Even the inhabitants of the settlements in the vicinity, Puconci and Vaneča, did not oppose to the project considerably.
