Green Initiative – citizens and the state work together to implement changes
Green Initiative – citizens and the state work together to implement changes
For the production of one paper ton, 17 trunks need to be cut down
In order to gather 200 kilograms of old paper, collector from Serbia had to walk around 20 kilometers.
Production of one ton of plastic bags (ordinary citizen of Serbia consumes seven on a daily basis) lasts hardly 60 minutes, and on the other hand, in order for a single bag to be naturally degraded, a hundred years is needed!
This is just a part of the alarming data from the field of environmental protection that are valid in Serbia. There are more, just as there is more activities to be carried out, pertaining to this sensitive field.
Obeying environmental standards, regulating municipal waste storage, followed by the waste recycling is one of the most competitive business sectors of the last decade – and the part of activities that are being conveyed smoothly in the developed world, to which Serbia aspires. With strong cooperation of local self-governments and other state bodies, including corporate sector and civil society organizations, lots of things can change. In order for these changes to take place, it is needed that all of them work together: the state, citizens, business sector.
The idea around which Green Initiative gathered, and the network of 22 civil society organizations in Serbia, is based on that trinity.
In order to get a clearer picture of the real state of affairs in this field and the Green Initiative mission, here’s several concrete information relevant for Serbia and the world.
To be collector in Serbia
Life of an average collector of secondary raw materials in Serbia finishes at the age of 46, his working hours amount to 11 hours per day, and he belongs to the most threatened and most impoverished social group. He is unemployed and without health insurance, while he earns between 10.000 to 15.000 RSD per month from selling secondary raw materials. According to the recent estimates, there are in Serbia around 35.000 to 50.000 collectors, while on international scale, at least 15 million people ensure their existence by collecting recycling materials from the waste. Legalization of collectors’ activities would contribute to improving the position of socially threatened groups and decrease the requirements for social benefits. There is large number of children working as collectors. 25 percent of collectors are less than 18 years old.
More than 40 percent of municipal waste in Serbia is being stored on around 3.000 wild landfills situated near the rivers, which represents big environmental problem, but also a threat to human health. Majority of landfills in Serbia do not fulfill basic requirements for environmental protection, and it spreads to a very vast surface. Landfills represent the most expensive type of waste storage as they call for large investments, and often their construction is being opposed by the local population.
Instead of landfills, primary waste selection and recycling are being encouraged abroad. Besides environmental, recycling combined with business contributes to economic benefit. International recycling industry generates the profit amounting to around 160 billion dollars on annual basis, and approximately 1.5 million people lives from that. In Serbia, EUR 50 million is being lost on a secondary waste that is not being recycled. Compared to the EU states, that averagely recycle half of the total waste material, this is the case with less than 10 percent of overall waste materials in Serbia.
Development of the culture of environmental protection and recycling and waste processing industries is directly linked with the economic and technological development of the country. Citizens’ self- responsibility, responsibility towards environment and future raw materials in Serbia would be more advanced if we hadn’t delayed with the implementation of this internationally developed discipline.
For the last decade, recycling had become very competitive business in the world that brings secure and long-term profit and opens new employment opportunities. In Serbia, the biggest part of waste material that is being recycled (around 75 percent) is being collected by the so-called individual collectors of secondary raw materials. Contrary to other countries, they belong to the group of most impoverished population, although the trade of secondary raw materials is very profitable business sector.
Working day of the secondary raw materials collector in Serbia lasts 11 hours on average. Most of collectors do not have basic equipment, or working tools. All is being done manually, in all weather conditions, and with lots of problems. Advancement of primary waste selection contributes to solving the problem of individual secondary raw materials collectors. Collectors’ inclusion into the system and assistance to their activities would encourage primary selection and future earnings.
Waste management is the primary task of every state. Strategic documents that are adopted in Serbia are the following: Waste Management Strategy for the period 2010 – 2019, and the National Strategy for approximation in the field of environment for the Republic of Serbia. Large number of NGOs is actively involved in the field of environmental protection.
Their support and active approach have great impact on the awareness of the citizens and contribute to creating positive standpoint on the necessity of the preservation of environment.
With that goal in mind, Green Initiative (www.zelenainicijativa.rs) has been established, which should in cooperation with the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) and with the financial assistance of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), encourage primary waste selection on the local and national level - in 24 local self-governments in the four regions in Serbia.
These organizations will support the implementation of the plans for waste management in the local self-governments and regions. According to the data of the Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning, around 60 local waste management plans were adopted all over Serbia and five regional plans for waste managementwere implemented in the accordance with the Waste Management Law.
Green initiative is established with the goal of participating in finding solutions for the individual problems of the secondary raw materials’ collectors and forming and developing three models of social entrepreneurship in the field of managing electric, electronic and plastic waste. All this is achievable with the increased participation of all relevant actors in the field of recycling materials’ collection that is to say for the citizens and the representatives of the recycling business (see the framed text above).
Integral component of the action under Green initiative is environmental campaign Get smart, help the planet! Recycle which achieved first results by organizing the action at the end of November in Raska. Around 2.000 citizens have worked on collecting more than 12 tons of old paper that was delivered to the recycling facilities in cooperation with the utilities. The campaign has been organized by the Eko club Green guideposts from Raska, the member of Green list of Serbia, with the support of the Balkan Fund for Local Initiatives (BCIF) in the cooperation with USAID, Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) and Young Researchers of Serbia.
In order for the campaign to be successful and massive, the citizens had stored the waste on several points in town. More than 450 pupils of the elementary schools “Raska” and “Sutjeska” have participated in the process of cleaning. Seventh graders from Raska have succeeded to gather 1200 kilograms of old paper. Apart from the competition in collecting waste, the pupils had participated in the environmental games and recycling quiz shows, while informal group “Graffiti 036” had made recycling graffiti in front of elementary school “Raška“.
After Raška, environmental campaign has been carried out in December in Vranje. For only several days, around 300 citizens of Vranje had collected more than 8 tons of plastics, old paper, electronic and electrical waste. The action has been organized by the Scout team “Homeland 1093” from Vranje, member of Green List of Serbia, while its implementation was supported by the organizations members of the “Green Initiative”.
Scout team "HOMELAND 1093" from Vranje is one of the rare inclusive groups on Balkan which members are also the people with disabilities. Implementing the program of traditional scouting with a focus on nature preservation, this unit has been for the last three years actively engaged in the campaign of the "Green lists of Serbia" - "GET SMART, HELP THE PLANET – Recycle".
“Around 50 persons with disabilities have been working for five months on the cleaning of four watercourses in the municipalities of Vranje and Vladicin Han where we have cleaned over 90 kilometers of the coast, removing from them more than 90 cubic meters of various waste. With this experience in mind, we have directed our activities to the individual collectors of the secondary raw materials. Our goal is establishing social company in order to carry out our activities legally”, Jovan Kocevski from the Scouting team „HOMELAND 1093“ said.
Members of this Scouting team are delighted that the efforts they made were not done in vain as the initiative was positively accepted by the households that are situated near the city river. “They want to continue in their efforts of placing big containers near their houses which should serve for waste storage. In this region, the waste has not been taken out for more than 30 years“, Kocevski explained.
Cooperation between local self-governments in Vranje and NGOs is verified by signing the Memorandum on environmental protection. Local authorities stress that the cooperation already brought initial results, and that the citizens often positively respond to the cleaning initiatives. Local authorities had signed this Memorandum with 40 associations active in this part of Serbia.
Srdjan Vasiljevic, assistant to the mayor of Vranje, in charge for the agriculture and environment, points out that the problem of environment pollution is not limited only to the local government’s initiative, but it concerns all the citizens. With various development plans and projects, the municipality of Vranje tries to solve the existence of wild landfills that can threaten human health. We also work on raising awareness of the citizens on the need of preserving environment. This is not possible to achieve if there is no cooperation between the citizens and local self-governments“, Vasiljević says. He points out that NGO sector’s initiatives encourage all the citizens that it is possible to decrease the number of wild landfills, but also to motivate them to take up similar activities. With introducing penal policy, local authorities try to change the approach of the individuals towards the environment.
The campaigns led in Raška and Vranje confirmed that with cooperation and good coordination of the local authorities and civil society organizations, the results are achieved, to the mutual benefit.
The citizens get cleaned environments to take care of, while local authorities should in future continue to work with the citizens and organizations. Removed wild landfills and recycled waste prove that the synergy that was launched is successful, and that the goals are achievable.
The campaign Get smart, help the planet! Recycle, within Green initiative mission will be continued in 12 other cities in Serbia. The plan is to gather more than 30.000 kilograms of plastics, paper, electronic and electrical waste that will be recycled.
It is important to include business sector in the implementation of the Green Initiative’s goals. Corporate responsibility and participation in environmental protection of the companies and business sector’s representatives in the field of waste management, is reflected in the Business Friendship Club that gathers companies and business representatives in the field of waste management. The first company that joined this idea is EkoStar Pak.
