Čajetina, August 2, 2022
Household waste separation is something we have been making great efforts to achieve for years, and which the local self-government, led by KJP "Zlatibor" Čajetina, has been extensively preparing for. Supported by the Swedish government, the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, and the competent ministry, I can now say that the beginning of the realization of this important step in environmental protection has arrived. Our goal is to separate the waste at the point of origin into dry and wet, to increase the amount of dry waste and thus reduce the amount that ends up in the landfill - said Marija Jeremić, Assistant to the Mayor of the municipality of Čajetina, at the ceremony marking the start of the "O-DVA-JA-MO" project.
The Project for Household Waste Separation "O-DVA-JA-MO" was launched by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia with the support of the European Union and the Kingdom of Sweden, and it is implemented in four waste management regions, which include a total of 17 cities and municipalities in Serbia, among which is also the Municipality of Čajetina – as a part of the Duboko region.
Through this project, equipment was donated to the Municipality of Čajetina in the form of 5,936 blue bins with a volume of 240 liters for the collection of recyclable waste, 40 yellow containers with a volume of 1.1 m3 intended for the collection of glass, a refuse collection vehicle with a capacity of 16 m3, as well as assistance and support in the implementation of an information campaign for citizens on the primary selection of waste.
Antoine Avignon, Program Manager for Environment and Climate Change from the EU Delegation to Serbia, said that after three years of the initial activities of this project, residents of the municipality of Čajetina will have the opportunity to separate the waste at the point of origin, which will be collected by the local utility company and offered on the market for secondary raw materials from which the local self-government will also profit. "The municipality of Čajetina became one of the pioneers in Serbia in waste management when they joined the founders of the Waste Management Centre of Duboko in 2011. And here, after 11 years, you have the opportunity again to be pioneers in the separation of waste in Serbia," concluded Avignon.
The State Secretary of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ivana Hadži Stošić, stated that in the municipalities where this project is implemented, around 215 tons of waste are generated annually, and the goal of this project is to recycle 30 tons of waste from landfills in the next two years. "The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Government of the Republic of Serbia has adopted two key documents in this area - the Waste Management Program for the period of 10 years and the Action Plan for the period 2022-2024, and, of course, the Ministry and the Government of Serbia will continue to support the municipality of Čajetina and all other municipalities in green projects," added Hadži Stošić.
The key holder of the waste separation project in the territory of the municipality of Čajetina is KJP "Zlatibor" Čajetina and Vera Blagojević, Manager of the Communal Services announced that by mid-August the first 107 households will receive new bins for waste separation. She also stated that with the launch of this project in the territory of Čajetina, the use of street containers in public space areas will discontinue.
