, another promotion of the Project for Household Waste Separation was held on the town square in front of the Cultural Center in Čačak, which was attended by representatives of the Swedish Embassy, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Delegation of the European Union.
The "O-DVA-JA-MO" project is implemented in 17 municipalities in Serbia, and the goal of the project is to recycle part of the waste generated in households, in order to reduce the amount that ends up in landfills, and to increase the recycling rate in these municipalities. to 15%.
Through this project, the city of Čačak, which belongs to the Duboko region, received three new vehicles for collecting and transporting dry waste, 15,164 blue bins and 392 blue containers for paper, plastic and metal, and 248 yellow containers for glass.
Mayor Milun Todorović emphasized the importance of this project for the city of Čačak and all its citizens and thanked all project partners for their support."Together with our partners, we recognized how important it is for citizens to properly separate waste at the point of origin, in order to create new value. "Odvajamo" was supported by the EU and the Embassy of Sweden with 950,000 euros, 840,000 euros is a donation, and slightly less than 110,000 is the participation of the City of Čačak. First of all, it should be said that the educaion of children is very important to us, the education of children who are here with us today, and who in the future, through their activities, will educate new generations to select waste at the point of origin. The results of this project are more than evident. Out of the 33,000 tons of waste that the city of Čačak annually sends to the "Duboko" landfill, about 27 tons were selected in January of this year, about 114 tons in February, and already about 176 tons in March," emphasized Todorović.
Ida Reuterswärd, the first secretary of the Swedish embassy, emphasized that her embassy in the field of environmental protection supports a large number of projects and initiatives that are important for a good quality of life in Serbia, such as waste management, water treatment, air quality management, regulation of industrial pollution... She, like Mayor Todorović, emphasized that the construction of a wastewater treatment plant will soon begin, which is of great importance for Čačak.
Assistant Minister of Environmental Protection Dušan Čarkić thanked the City of Čačak, but above all the citizens, stressing that without their support and participation, the realization of the project would not have been possible."Our idea is to carry out the primary separation of waste at the place of origin through a pilot project. To that end, three modern garbage trucks, more than 15,000 bins and about 600 containers were provided for Čačak. We will implement more projects related to environmental protection, first of all, it is a waste water treatment plant, we are working on the rehabilitation of the existing landfill, but many other projects are also being planned," said Čarkić.
Antoine Avignon, program manager for the environment and the fight against climate change at the EU Delegation in Serbia emphasized that the European Union is assisting 17 municipalities in Serbia in the implementation of a very ambitious waste separation project.
"We started in 2017, and now we have all the equipment and can start separating waste. My message to the people of Čačak is to continue with waste separation, to separate waste as much as possible so that as little as possible ends up in landfills. This helps to reduce the costs we incur due to pollution and the costs of the landfills themselves. It also creates new jobs, and that thing is very important," said Avignon.
All present symbolically pointed out the importance of waste separation in Čačak by ceremonially inserting plastic bottles and cans into the blue bins, and the students of Elementary School "Milica Pavlović" prepared a play on the topic of environmental protection for everyone present.
The Waste Management Program in Serbia 2022-2031, adopted by the Government of Serbia as part of EU accession, aims to improve the municipal waste management system through an increased rate of recycling, reduced disposal of biodegradable waste in landfills and reduced disposal of waste in unhygienic landfills.
Now everyone can separate
waste fast and easily!