Rubbish dispute: Head of housing association claims to have been pressured for refusing a waste collection contractor in Mykolaiv
- News of Mykolaiv
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- Alona Kokhanchuk
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16:00, 02 April, 2026
The housing association’s rubbish bins and, next to them, the site for the municipal transport bins, which has already been dismantled. Photo by Oleh Zorka, chair of the housing associationIn Mykolaiv, the chairman of the «Dyvosvit» Housing Association (HOA) is unable to reach an agreement with the Inhulskyi District administration regarding the installation of rubbish bins and complains of pressure from them due to the selection of a private company as the waste collection contractor.
Oleh Zorka, chairman of the Dyvosvit HOA, told NikVesti that after the HOA was established in 2016, the association signed a contract with the private waste collection company Evako. Two 1.1 m³ containers were installed for four buildings — at 12 Pozdovzhnia Street, 1 and 5, as well as 4 and 6 Kytoboiv Street.
A site for containers belonging to the municipal enterprise Mykolaivkomtrans was also set up nearby, but these were later moved to another courtyard. According to the HOA chairman, residents were not properly informed of this, so some people began dumping rubbish into the HOA’s bins.
An empty site without the Mykolaivkomuntrans bins, which have already been dismantled. Photo by Oleg Zorky, chairman of the HOA«On 30 December, I started receiving complaints from my residents that the Mykolaivkomuntrans bins were missing and people were dumping rubbish in our bins, creating a rubbish dump right there. I started looking into it and rang the contact centre. They said they would check the information. Then they called back and said that this was an order from the Inhulskyi District Administration, because there should be no rubbish bins there, as there is a filtered water distribution point,» he says.
The bins have been moved by Mykolaivkomuntrans. Photo by Oleh Zorka, head of the HOAAccording to the chairman of the HOA, the district administration sent them letters noting that their bins were installed on the transport authority’s premises without approval, so they needed to be moved.
Letter from the Inhulskyi District administration regarding the HOA’s containers
Letter from the Inhulskyi District Administration regarding the HOA’s binsThe chairman of the HOA, in turn, approached the head of the district administration, Hanna Remennikova, with a request to approve the official location of the site for the containers so that it could be set up. However, according to Oleh Zorka, he received no reply.
«When the war began, many people left, but the amount and volume of rubbish that needs to be collected remained the same. Now it turns out that I’m not only collecting my own rubbish, but other people’s as well. And now the organisation (Mykolaivkomuntrans, — note), which is supposed to collect its own bins, is playing games and creating a situation to accuse us of being dishonest and not collecting our own rubbish. Our bins are overflowing, while theirs contain just a couple of bags of rubbish, because people don’t know where they’re located,» he says.
Oleh Zorka, the chairman of the homeowners’ association, also stated that he is feeling pressure from the Inhulskyi District administration over the association’s contract with Evako. According to him, the administration is insisting on signing a contract with Mykolaivkomtrans, which serves the Inhulskyi District.
«I received a fine because there were inscriptions on my buildings, and they issued a fine. A week later, a notice arrived stating that we must renew the contract with the municipal transport company. To which I replied that, according to the HOA’s articles of association, it was established to ensure comfortable living conditions and to keep track of its expenses. And all decisions regarding the renewal of contracts are made at the general meeting,» he notes.
Oleh Zorka explained that last December, the residents held a meeting and refused to change the transport provider.
«I raised this issue at the meeting. But people didn’t support it and said it wasn’t clear how charges would be calculated for people who had moved out of their flats to other countries or to their summer cottages,» he says.
The chairman of the HOA believes that the district administration is not interested in people’s interests.
«I am under pressure from the district administration to sign a contract with the company they are lobbying for. They are not interested in the interests of the HOA or the residents,» stated the head of the association.
To clarify the situation, NikVesti contacted Anton Uzhva, the first deputy head of the Inhulskyi district. According to him, the situation is not actually as described by the head of the HOA, Oleh Zorka.
He noted that the administration currently has no objections to the placement of the HOA’s bins. Previously, they were located near the bin site of the municipal enterprise Mykolaivkomtrans, but they were moved closer to the HOA’s buildings and are now correctly positioned.
«He was using the municipal transport bins for his residents and that was it. We emphasised to him that if he uses a different company to collect rubbish, he should move the bins to his own buildings, because that site was serviced by the municipal transport company. That is why this decision was taken,» says Anton Uzhva.
According to the official, the site with the municipal transport bins was also moved from there so as not to clutter the area. Residents were informed of this at a meeting.
Kommuntrans dismantled the site for the bins and moved it to another location. Photo by Oleh Zorka, head of the HOA
The municipal transport service moved the bins to the following address: 5A, 12 Pozdovzhnia Street. Photo by Oleh Zorka, chairman of the homeowners’ association«Secondly, we have a water supply point near this container site, and homeless people were constantly living there; we were constantly having to chase them away with the police. Obltelenergo wrote to us asking us to remove this container site because it is constantly cluttered. Therefore, a decision was made to remove it from there,» says the deputy head of the district.
Anton Uzhva also emphasised that it is the residents of the housing association who are dumping rubbish into the Mykolaivkomtrans bins, rather than into their own Evako bins.
«This HOA chairman is being a bit crafty. We can show where his buildings are located and how many bins he uses for them. Because of him, our area is becoming cluttered. On Kytoboiv Street, there are municipal transport bins, and the site is there. His residents physically walk there to throw away their rubbish. There’s a certain logistics involved. The residents of the housing association have to go back along 12 Pozdovzhnia Street to put their rubbish in their bins. That’s not logical. That’s why they’re dumping rubbish at other sites where the rubbish for these residents hasn’t been accounted for. So there’s a conflict there too,» says Anton Uzhva.
The locations of the HOA buildings are: 12 Pozdovzhnia, 1 and 5, as well as 4 and 6 Kytoboiv. Screenshot from Google MapsRegarding the HOA’s contract with Evako, the deputy head of the Inhulskyi District noted that the district administration has no influence over the management company’s decisions.
«One waste collector has been designated — that is Mykolaivkomuntrans (in the Inhulskyi district, — note). We must use a single waste collector. Since we have no influence over the heads of the housing associations who choose other waste collectors, people simply choose them. But, as practice shows, the areas served by other collectors are very cluttered. Unfortunately, we have no influence over them; they are, so to speak, «grey» waste collectors,» he adds.
It should be noted that the district administrations of Mykolaiv have had their powers regarding the clearance of unauthorised rubbish dumps revoked. This task will now be handled by two contractors — the municipal enterprise Mykolaivkomuntrans and the municipal enterprise Obrii-DKP.
It was also reported that members of the Mykolaiv City Council were unable to approve the updated operating procedures for the household waste sorting facility — there were not enough votes to pass the decision.
It should be noted that the tender procedure was finalised taking into account the recommendations of the working group. It was endorsed by members of the executive committee at a meeting on 25 March.
Earlier, Ihor Nabatov told NikVesti that the terms of the contract had changed slightly. It will now last for no more than 15 years, but with the option to extend it for a further 10 years upon completion.
The situation regarding the construction of a waste sorting line in Mykolaiv
The issue of waste sorting in Mykolaiv was raised as far back as 2019, when the cost of two lines was estimated at approximately 10 million hryvnias. At the time, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych insisted that the costs should be borne by investors, not the city budget. Although a waste management programme was adopted, it never came to fruition.
The Supreme Court ruled that the city council’s inaction was unlawful and ordered the construction of a sorting line, as the landfill, which has been in operation since 1972, had reached the end of its useful life.
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 LLC. However, the company received only the minimum required score, and councillors and the head of the regional state administration, Vitalii Kim, criticised the lack of transparency in the procedure and the unfavourable terms.
Law enforcement 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 winner. The city authorities are preparing new tender conditions. Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that the process would be public, involving international partners, notably from Denmark.
Read also the article by NikVesti: «How Mykolaiv plans to start sorting waste».
This material was produced within the REACH – Media Partnerships for Accountability and Trust project, implemented by International Media Support (IMS) and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. The content reflects the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the Danish government. Denmark’s support strengthens civil society and independent media in Ukraine, including in Mykolaiv.