On Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the final conference of the "Management of glass packaging in the Western Balkans" project was held in Ilidža, organized by EKOPAK and REDAH. In addition to project partners and project beneficiaries from the 4 pilot municipalities/cities,the participants of the conference were representatives of municipalities and cities and utility companies from the Sarajevo Canton, Zenica Doboj and Bosnia Podrinje Cantons, as well as representatives of federal institutions.
At the conference, the results achieved in 4 pilot municipalities/cities in the Federation of BiH (Bihać, Konjic, Ilidža and Novi Travnik) as well as in other countries of the Western Balkans were presented, and the participants were introduced to the legal, operational and economic parts of the Guide for establishing an efficient system of collection and recycling of glass packaging in local self-government units. At the conference, emphasis was placed on the importance of cooperation and collaboration between partners and users, thanks to which the set goals were achieved, despite the problems in the implementation of the project during the pandemic of the COVID virus, and the energy crisis in 2022. All present are invited to use the presented management models of collected glass packaging as an opportunity for the development and preparation of new initiatives and projects in this area.
The project is being implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia with the aim of increasing the amount of collected and recycled glass packaging, along with setting up new containers and strengthening citizens' awareness of the importance of recycling, but also to create favorable regulatory solutions in this area. This project is implemented within the framework of the development cooperation program with the private sector - develoPPP.de, which is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and operators for the collection of glass packaging "Ekopak" from Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Sekopak" from Serbia and "Pakomak" from North of Macedonia. Other partners in the project are the German Organization for International Cooperation (GIZ), the National Alliance for Local Economic Development "NALED" from Serbia, the Regional Development Agency for Economic Development "REDAH" from BiH and the Union of Local Self-Governments "ZELS" from North Macedonia.
The project, which started in BiH in January 2020 is being implemented by GiZ and REDAH, as well as the utility companies of the mentioned municipalities, in addition to Ekopak.
