This Montenegro Recycling Guide was updated in December 2024

5 national parks, 117 beaches, and 9 Recycling stations are waiting while you will finalize your travel and recycling plans for Montenegro. Not ideal, but still a good recycling infrastructure to recycle your waste properly. In this article I will mostly focus on Podgorica, but will also try to provide an overview of initiatives across the country (incl. seaside).

The waste management infrastructure in Montenegro is still under development. Only 2-7% of waste is recycled, while most of the collected waste ends up in municipal landfills (including illegal dumpsites). Podgorica, being the capital of the country, has the most well-developed recycling infrastructure. The Law on Waste Management stipulates several fines types for individuals and organizations that range from 30€ to 40.000€. However, the effectiveness of these fines is limited because of the lack of enforcement.

There are currently 9 recycling yards called “reciklažno dvorište” (6 in Podgorica, 1 in Herceg Novi, and 1 in Kotor). Citizens and businesses can bring their recyclables to the collection point or recycling center (often referred to as a civic amenity site) for free. Recycling yards are open 7 days a week from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM. You can find the nearest yard as well as open hours on the map created by my friends from Zerowastemontenegro Project. On this map, you can check what particular type of recyclables you can bring to the particular recycling center. The list of acceptable recycling types is pretty full and among popular (metal, plastic, paper, glass) includes also rare waste types, such as flat glass (windows), tires, wood, edible and motor oils, paints, old batteries, oil filters, fluorescent tubes, e-waste, styrofoam, old medications.

I used the recycling yards facilities in Podgorica quite regularly during my 9 months life in Montenegro and can leave only positive feedback for the facility.

Another local project that I strongly recommend you is Green Adriatic: volunteers are organising cleanups, have green-taxi service to collect your recyclables from your place and also set up monthly waste collection events (especially great choice for remote areas and coast line).

Glass, paper, and plastic is accepted among other recyclable fractions in blue recycling bins (called “suva frakcija” in the Montenegrian language) that are installed on the streets in Podgorica (find examples in the photo gallery). And also you can bring it to the nearest recycling yard.

The plastic caps collection point was found in the “Big Fashion” (ex-Delta) shopping mall in Podgorica (in the middle of the 2nd floor closer to the cafe zone).

In Budva city, you can find yellow bins for plastic bottles (“plastica”) and blue bins for cans (“limenke”) on the beach.

Please note, that all these fractions are not recycled in Montenegro. Based on Zero Waste Montenegro manager advice, glass is collected and stored locally (with the hope that one day it would be recycled), while paper, plastic, and metal are exported for recycling abroad, mostly to Serbia. By the way, check out my guide about recycling in Belgrade Serbia.

Batteries and E-Waste are acceptable in some recycling yards in Montenegro. Find the nearest yard on the recycling map from the Zerowastemontenegro Project (focus on dark green marks near Podgorica).

In Budva, in shop MIX Markt you can leave your used batteries as well (with the support of the Green Adriatic Project).

Old (broken) mobile phones you can also bring to the Mobile Service Providers (like T-Mobile, 29, Moskovska str. Podgorica).

Textile bins were found near the entrance to Big Fashion (ex-Delta) shopping mall in Podgorica (shoes are accepted as well).

There are no centralized organic waste collection points in the country. There is one big modern green waste (organic) composting facility in Kotor city held by Kotor Municipality with EU support, but it’s not available for citizens.

Great news: During the summer of 2023 composting facility was set up in Podgorica and Cetinje with the support of activists from the great project “Urbana Basta”: local community garden. So now you’re more than welcome to bring your scraps for composting. Check the schedule with activists via Instagram (for Podgorica – Urbana Basta page, for Cetinje – local activist page).

Ordinary grey bins are installed on the streets to collect general waste that is not acceptable for recycling. 
The rare type of waste that not only collected here but also (surprisingly) is recycled in Montenegro is old medicines: there is a plant built for these purposes a few years ago. Use Recycling yards infrastructure to leave your expired medicines.