The Municipal Services Department is conducting its own study to find out how much and what kind of rubbish Mykolaiv residents produce

New standards for household waste generation are being developed in Mykolaiv. The Department of Municipal Services is carrying out the work independently, without involving contractors or incurring additional expenditure from the city budget.

This is stated in the response from the Department of Municipal Services of Mykolaiv City Council to an enquiry from NikVesti.

The department reported that work on the new standards began in 2026 and is currently ongoing. The current standards were approved back in 2021, and the new ones have not yet been adopted.

A previous attempt to commission a third-party company to develop the standards was unsuccessful. In April 2025, the Department of Housing and Communal Services entered into a contract with METAL Ltd, but this was subsequently terminated due to the poor quality of the services provided.

«Due to the inadequate quality of the services provided, the contract in question was terminated. No payment was made under it, and no budget funds were spent,» the document states.

Earlier, in March 2026, the City Council’s Executive Committee adopted a decision to investigate the composition of household waste and review the standards governing its generation. The aim was to determine the composition of municipal waste, the volumes in which it accumulates, and what generation standards should be established.

At the same time, in response to the enquiry, the department provided the results of a preliminary study carried out by the Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding even before the start of the full-scale invasion in 2020. At that time, experts analysed nearly four tonnes of waste in four districts of the city across all four seasons. The work cost 99,700 гривень, which was allocated from the city’s special-purpose fund for environmental protection.

According to the study’s findings, organic waste accounted for the largest proportion of rubbish — ranging from 43 per cent in spring to 57 per cent in autumn. Paper accounted for 6–8 per cent, plastic for 4–9 per cent, and glass for 3–8 per cent.

It should be noted that, following the results of the fourth tender, members of the Mykolaiv City Council will be asked to appoint LNK Resycling LLC as the waste sorting operator for the city. According to the document, the basis for the decision was the minutes of the tender committee meeting held on 9 October 2026. If councillors support the draft decision, LNK Resycling LLС will be officially designated as the operator responsible for sorting household waste in the city.

It should be noted that «LNK Recycling» had already won the previous tender, but no contract was signed with them. As is known, at its session on 28 August 2025, the Mykolaiv City Council refused to approve the results of the tender to select a waste sorting company and refused to conclude the relevant contract with «Waste to Energy Niko» Ltd.

LNK Recycling LLC, as the founder of Waste to Energy Niko Ltd, was disappointed that the city of Mykolaiv and the company were unable to sign a contract for the construction of a waste sorting line.

It should be recalled that in September, the tender committee responsible for selecting the operator of the solid household waste sorting line met to determine the winner of the tender. During the meeting, committee members raised further questions regarding the participant’s documents, in particular concerning its financial position.

It should also be recalled that following the failure of the third tender to select an operator for the household waste sorting facility, the Mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, stated that he was prepared to support changes to the tender rules if councillors put forward such proposals. However, immediately afterwards, a fourth tender was announced under the same rules, which was due to run until 31 August.

At the session of the Mykolaiv City Council on 27 August, a heated debate erupted regarding the current terms of the tender to select a household waste sorting operator, involving the Mayor of Mykolaiv.

Fedir Panchenko also outlined all his comments in detail at the meeting of the Budget Committee on 25 August. He gave a presentation in which he set out the rationale behind all his proposals. Further details can be found in the NikVesti article.

The situation regarding the construction of a waste sorting line in Mykolaiv

Mykolaiv had previously announced a similar tender on three occasions, but was unable to select an operator at that time.

In 2024, councillors approved the operating procedures for the solid waste sorting complex and announced an investment tender. The first tender did not take place, whilst the second was won by «Waste To Energy Niko» Ltd. However, the company received only the minimum required score, and councillors, along with the then head of the Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, criticised the lack of transparency in the procedure and the unfavourable terms.

Law enforcement agencies opened an investigation and carried out searches at the city council. At the session on 28 August, councillors did not support the approval of the contract with the winning bidder. Following this, the city authorities began preparing new terms for the tender. Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that the process would be public, involving international partners, notably from Denmark.

At the session, councillors were due to approve the updated operating procedures for the household waste sorting complex. However, in March 2026, the vote failed. It was, however, approved a month later, in May.

Only one company submitted a bid for the repeat tender to select the company that would build and operate the waste sorting complex in Mykolaiv: LNK Recycling LLC, part of the Ukrainian-American LNK Group. The French company Veolia, which had previously expressed an interest in participating, did not submit a bid.

However, no winner was selected. The sole participant did not achieve the required number of points from the commission.

In general, the issue of waste sorting in Mykolaiv was first raised back in 2019, when the cost of two sorting lines was estimated at approximately 10 million hryvnias. At the time, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych insisted that the costs should be borne by investors, rather than the city budget. Although a waste management programme was adopted, it was never implemented.

The Supreme Court ruled that the city council’s inaction was unlawful and ordered the construction of a waste sorting line, as the landfill, which has been in operation since 1972, has reached the end of its useful life.