On the central square in Šabac, on March 22, the beginning of the implementation of the Project for Household Waste Separation "O-dva-ja-mo", which was launched by the Ministry of Environmental Protection with the support of the European Union and the Embassy of the Sweden, was officially marked. Through this project, the city of Šabac received 12,623 blue bins in which households will separate paper, plastic and metal. In addition, 182 blue containers for the same purpose and 191 yellow containers for glass were donated, as well as three trucks for the removal of separated dry waste. The goal is to reduce the amount of waste in landfills and to carry out primary separation in households.
"Waste selection is a very important segment in order to recycle more and have less waste at the Srem-Mačva regional landfill. The city received significant incentives from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the EU, and it is up to us to make significant progress in environmental protection by implementing the project. But a lot depends on us, so I invite all fellow citizens to participate in this project together and to separate waste," said the mayor of Šabac, Dr. Aleksandar Pajić.
In order for citizens to be more familiar with this project and its importance for environmental protection, representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Delegation of the European Union addressed the attendees.
"The project is extremely important for local communities and for the whole of Serbia, because with this project we have covered 17 local governments, one of which is the city of Šabac. The city of Šabac participated with 150,000 euros in the realization of this project, through which 26 trucks for the removal of dry waste and over 90,000 bins and containers were acquired. This is a pilot project and only one in a series that we will implement with the local self-government and the city of Šabac in order to protect the environment," said Assistant Minister of Environmental Protection Mr. Dušan Čarkić.
Program manager for Environment and Climate Change at the EU Delegation, Antoine Avignon, believes that the implementation of the project in Šabac will be successful, and that citizens will be interested in waste separation.
"The idea of the "O-dva-ja-mo" Project is to separate household waste in order to reduce the total amount of waste that ends up in landfills. Construction of landfills and maintenance is very expensive, sometimes they are not even done well, so it is useful not to send all the waste to the landfill. Primary separation of waste not only creates recyclable materials, but we also create jobs and contribute to the development of the economy," emphasized Antoine Avignon.
