From November 2022, 17 municipalities and cities (Pirot, Babušnica, Bela Palanka, Dimitrovgrad, Pančevo, Čajetina, Čačak, Užice, Lucani, Kosjerić, Bajina Bašta, Požega, Ivanjica, Sremska Mitrovica, Šabac, Bogatić, Šid) started with the implementation of the collection of recyclable waste separated in households with the aim that as little of this waste as possible ends up in landfills. These pioneering municipalities already collect over 250 tons of recyclable material of good quality every month, and in the coming months an increase in the amount of material collected in households is expected.
Representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the European Union and Sweden met in Pirot on March 13, 2023 with representatives of the 17 currently most advanced local governments in the field of waste management. The participants of the meetings and workshops discussed the challenges and successes in the implementation of the Project "Odvajamo" as well as new projects to come.
Citizens are proactive, and their reactions are very positive - individual households are satisfied that they have received blue bins for waste separation and that public utility companies come regularly according to the announced schedule with dedicated vehicles to collect dry waste from those bins, which then goes to the line for secondary separation in regional centres for waste management.
Assistant Minister Mr Dušan Čarkić announced that new investments can be expected in the municipalities and cities where the implementation of the project is successful. The Ministry of Environmental Protection is already planning the next phase in which it will support local governments in managing green waste. The beneficiaries of this project will be citizens of as many as 25 cities and municipalities.
"At this meeting, we want to see progress and new ideas and new plans for the future during the implementation of this and similar projects in the field of environmental protection," underlined Assistant Minister Dušan Čarkić.
During the organized workshop, 17 municipalities were able to share and exchange their experiences in the implementation and promotion of this project, as well as to consult with project partners about the next steps and plans for new environmental projects.
"In the countries of the European Union, we try to separate waste as much as possible so that as little waste as possible ends up in landfills. This helps to reduce the costs we have due to pollution and the costs of the landfills themselves. It also creates new jobs, and that thing is very important. When we started the project "Odvajamo" with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and with 17 municipalities throughout the country, we conducted a survey that showed that 94% of citizens support the primary separation of waste as a measure to reduce pollution. Today we are very satisfied and very happy to be here in Pirot with 16 other municipalities where we will discuss how to make this project even more successful. This project shows what European solidarity is, we are doing it in the spirit of together with Sweden," said Antoine Avignon, program manager for the environment and the fight against climate change at the EU Delegation in Serbia.
Ida Reuteswärd, the first secretary of the Embassy of Sweden, stated that Sweden works in close cooperation with the European Union and Serbia in order to support Serbia on its way to the European Union.
"We, in the field of environmental protection, support many things that are important for a good quality of life in Serbia, such as waste management, water treatment, air quality management, regulation of industrial pollution and others. We are glad to see that citizens all over Serbia are ready to start and are already separating waste such as paper, plastic, metal and glass. It is good that we are engaging more and more citizens, but this will take time, we need to dedicate ourselves to this process in the long term because it takes time, in Sweden it took at least ten years for people to understand the importance of waste separation," added Ida Reuteswärd.
The Project "Odvajamo" continues and will include a larger number of households in the municipalities, and what will immediately follow in the final phase of the project will be another public opinion survey of citizens that will show satisfaction with the primary separation of waste in these 17 municipalities.
