A planned waste tyre storage and processing facility in Žabalj, a town in Serbia’s Vojvodina region between Novi Sad and Zrenjanin, also home to the Linglong tyre factory, has drawn repeated protests from local residents since April 2026, centred on a disputed environmental impact study and the facility’s proximity to housing
The facility, proposed by investor Plava Frajla d.o.o., is planned for an industrial zone roughly 800 metres from the nearest houses, with a stated maximum capacity of up to 72 tonnes of waste tyres per day, according to N1 and a petition organised by campaign group Kreni-Promeni.
The impact study from February 2026 states that Eko-sistem is a branch of Plava Frajla d.o.o., founded in Novi Sad in 2014, and that the company manufactures products from old, discarded tyres such as playground and fitness surfacing and wheels for bins and containers. According to the study, Eko-sistem has operated its own tyre recycling facility since 2017. The study also lists a transport permit from 2023 and a collection permit from 2025, which the study describes as together forming a closed recycling loop, from collection through to finished product.
The impact study states that there are no public facilities in the immediate vicinity of the site, such as schools, kindergartens, healthcare facilities or sports and recreational facilities, that could be directly exposed to negative effects from the plant’s operation. It further states that the site and its surroundings do not include areas protected under international, national or local regulations for landscape, cultural or other values, nor protected natural assets, public-access recreational routes, or traffic corridors prone to congestion or environmental problems.
An initial public gathering was held in Žabalj in April 2026 following a public discussion of the project’s environmental impact study, with a further protest, “Ne damo Žabalj, ne damo Jegričku” (“We won’t give up Žabalj, we won’t give up the Jegrička”), held in July. Residents have called for the facility to be relocated away from the town or for the project to be scrapped entirely.
At the April gathering, resident Bojan Savatović, a local resident, told Danas that the study, commissioned by the investor, understated the facility’s impact and contained inaccurate distance figures, directly disputing the study’s own conclusions on nearby facilities.
According to Savatović, the study cites the distance to the nearest secondary school as 1.7 kilometres but does not mention a primary school he says is roughly half that distance away. He also said the study does not mention a water source he places around 1.5 kilometres from the site, and lists the protected Jegrička nature park as five kilometres away, when he says he measured the distance himself at 2.4 kilometres. These figures could not be independently verified against the full impact study for this article and are presented here as claims made by residents and reported by Danas.
The Kreni-Promeni petition, addressed to the Žabalj municipal authorities, argues that a facility of this kind should not operate in close proximity to housing, nature and drinking water sources, and states that wastewater from the plant’s technological processes would be discharged into a canal connected to the Jegrička, a waterway it describes as habitat for more than 80 plant species, around 190 bird species and over 20 fish species.
At the July protest, resident Miloš, speaking to N1, said local frustration also stems from an existing landfill and nearby farms residents already associate with pollution. He said more than 500 objections and complaints had been submitted regarding the impact study, with no response received as of late July, and noted a response deadline running to the end of August 2026.
Public review of the impact study reportedly remains open, with residents saying they intend to continue filing formal objections during that period. Žabalj municipal authorities had not published a public response to residents’ concerns as of the most recent reporting reviewed for this article.
Sources: N1, Danas, Kreni-Promeni, Studija o proceni uticaja na životnu sredinu (Eko-sistem)
