Waste-to-Energy Solutions for North Macedonia: Exploring Feasibility and Youth Involvement

Isra Demi () and Sara Melani ()
Additional contact information
Isra Demi: South-East European University, Student of Faculty of Business and Economics
Sara Melani: South-East European University, Student of Faculty of Business and Economics

Chapter Chapter 23 in Economic Resilience and Sustainability - Vol. 2, 2026, pp 361-386 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract North Macedonia faces significant challenges with inefficient waste management and high electricity prices. Waste-to-Energy (WtE) technology offers a promising solution by converting waste into usable energy, thereby addressing both problems simultaneously. This study aims to assess the environmental feasibility and energy generation of WtE projects, while also examining if the country’s young citizens are ready for the next sustainable step. A mixed-methods approach was used, combining a quantitative survey (a sample size of 107, 94% of which were young citizens aged 18–38) with a comparative analysis of international WtE models. We derived the results of the survey using an ordinal logistic regression method. Results show high awareness among youth and a strong willingness to participate if the government invests in sustainable projects. Comparative insights highlight Singapore as a viable benchmark for scalable WtE implementation, its TuasOne WtE plant produces 1.05TWh of electricity annually burning 1.31 M tons of waste, while we calculated the potential of North Macedonia to be 1.01 TWh by incinerating ~ 1 M tons of non-hazardous waste, which is 34% of total domestic electricity needs, this would reduce North Macedonia’s energy dependency significantly. Our findings suggest that WtE can be a viable solution for North Macedonia, if it is paired with improved recycling and careful implementation.

Keywords: Waste-to-Energy (WtE); North Macedonia; Sustainability; Youth engagement; Waste management; Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-032-04214-9_23

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783032042149

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-04214-9_23

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().