Since 1 September 2025, the disposal of mixed municipal waste has been prohibited at the Uborak landfill in Mostar. The decision was issued by the FBiH Administration for Inspection Affairs.
The ban will remain in place until the public company Deponija obtains authorisation from the competent ministry or secures an environmental permit for the site.
The citizens’ association Jer nas se tiče told journalists from the Centre for Investigative Reporting that they had repeatedly requested inspections and warned that the landfill poses a threat to residents.
People have already moved to other neighbourhoods. They have big houses there, but they don’t dare live in them — they’re afraid. And it’s unbearable, the stench is intolerable, said Omer Hujdur.
Although the decision was anticipated, Hujdur fears it is simply paving the way for the FBiH Ministry of Environment and Tourism to issue an environmental permit. He said that they were trying to bury the city of Mostar in rubbish by halting waste collection at the site, so that they could later justify it by claiming they had no choice but to issue the environmental permit.
Mirhad Grebović, director of the public company Deponija, is hoping precisely for that outcome — the permit that would allow waste disposal to continue. Otherwise, he warns, Mostar faces an environmental disaster.
He blames the citizens’ association Jer nas se tiče, arguing that its members have been obstructing the company’s work.
They always had extra demands, additional objections. Everything they had previously agreed with the mayor of Mostar and the management of Deponija, they would later go back on. They opposed it only to drag out the entire process, Grebović told CIN.
He claims that the company regularly monitors water, air, and soil quality, and that no test results have ever shown exceedances. If Deponija is granted an environmental permit, the citizens’ association Jer nas se tiče plans to challenge it in court.
CIN reported four years ago that the landfill had long been operating without an environmental permit. Nevertheless, municipal utility trucks from Mostar were still delivering more than 100 tonnes of waste to the site each day.
The CIN investigation also found that the landfill’s wastewater contained dangerously high levels of arsenic, posing a long-term risk of environmental contamination and serious illness among local residents.
