The Zero Waste Municipalities project team started implementation of project activities in pilot municipalities – first in a row in BiH was Visoko. On April 7th, 2021, 12 meeting participants gathered in the City hall, among which representatives of city authorities, public utility for waste management and experts from Center for Energy, Environment and Resources – CENER 21, the project lead partner.
Participants were welcomed by Šejla Mahmutović, project manager who emphasized the significance of project activities that will be implemented in Visoko for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s progress towards circular economy and zero waste concept. The project will address waste management challenges in entire cross-border area between Serbia and BiH, focusing on six pilot municipalities: Visoko, Ilijaš and Sarajevo Center in BiH and Bajina Bašta, Vladimirci and Krupanj in Serbia.
Representatives of city authorities and public utility for waste management in Visoko were introduced with the model of circular economy and zero waste concept, as well as the scope and objectives of the project. Participants of the meeting identified local communities in Visoko as pilot areas where project activities will be implemented. The Zero Waste Municipalities project includes the following activities:
- Development of “Zero waste action plan” for Visoko;
- Development of tehnical-investment documentation for the zero waste concept;
- Development of interactive GIS map for the area locating all illegal landfills in Visoko;
- Cleaning of one selected landfill;
- Procurement and installation of containers for separate waste collection for households and equipment for improved waste management collection.
Since the capacity building is one of the projects’ specific objectives, it will also provide an education training programme for the representatives of public utility for waste management and representatives of local communities. An exchange of knowledge and good practices will be realized through the joint study visit to the Regional center for waste management in Maribor, Slovenia.
“The crucial challenges for waste management in Visoko are illegal landfills, large amounts of animal waste and especially low public awareness on consequences of inadequate waste disposal.” – highlighted Dino Delibašić, technical director of public utility for waste management Visoko.
The project will address the public awareness raising by supporting education of students and teachers in high school “Hazim Šabanović” in Visoko, which is one of the six selected pilot high schools. The pilot school will be provided with an extracurricular training programme for students focusing on circular economy and zero waste concept. In this purpose, the school will be provided with the recycling equipment for practical education.
The Zero Waste Municipalities project is implemented within IPA cross-border cooperation programme between Serbia and BiH and co-funded by the European Union. The total budget of the project is 413,608.44 EUR, of which the European Union provided 351,567.17 EUR in grants. It is implemented with joint forces of Center For energy, Environment and Resources – CENER 21 (BiH) and Environment Engineering Group – EEG (Serbia). The contracting authority for this project is the Ministry of Finance, Sector for Contracting and Financing of Programs from European Union Funds (CFCU) of Republic of Serbia.