ČAJETINA IS EXPENDING THE O-DVA-JA-MO PROJECT IN ZLATIBOR

In Zlatibor, on May 18, representatives of the local self-government and communal public company "Zlatibor" marked the official start of the "O-DVA-JA-MO" project this time in the Cultural Center in Zlatibor. Bad weather and rain did not prevent many dignitaries and guests who came to hear more about the importance of environmental protection and the importance of this project for the local community.

The municipality of Čajetina, which includes the town of Zlatibor, is one of the eight municipalities in the Duboko region where this project began to be implemented in 2022.Through this project, the municipality of Čajetina received one new vehicle of 16 m3 for the collection and removal of dry waste, 5936 blue bins for paper, plastic, and metal and 3 yellow containers for glass. Every individual household in the municipality of Čajetina, in addition to the blue bin provided by the project, also receives a green bin for mixed waste from PUC "Zlatibor".

"I am extremely satisfied that the citizens of the municipality of Čajetina, from the youngest to the oldest, have heartily accepted to take part in the primary separation of waste in their micro-environments, the waste that is later taken to regional landfills where it is recycled and used in the further processes of economy and life. Everywhere in the world, waste is also a big business, and for local governments a significant source of income that can later be used in the implementation of all those projects that bring only benefits to the local population," said Milan Stamatović, president of the Municipality of Čajetina, adding that he hopes that occasional residents and tourists would also recognize the benefits and get actively involved in this project of environmental protection.

"We still have to build an amenity site, a central composting plant and a facility for the treatment of construction waste in which the local self-government will invest significant financial resources, announced Stamatović, thus we are taking big steps towards the goal of becoming the first ecological municipality in Serbia."

In front of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden, a country that is a European leader in investments in green technologies and one of the main partners in the implementation of the "Odvajamo" project, Mrs. Karin Macdonald praised everything that the residents, public companies and local self-government of Čajetina have done in the previous two years, expressing the hope that other municipalities in Serbia will follow this example of good practice.

The manager of the municipal service of PUC "Zlatibor", Mrs. Vera Blagojević, pointed out that the amount of collected primarily selected waste is constantly increasing, the purity of which is 95 percent, which only means that all residents of the municipality of Čajetina have taken very seriously this effort of the municipality to create an ecologically clean local environment.

As young people from the territory of the municipality of Čajetina are also active participants in primary waste separation, on this occasion they contributed by singing the hymn "Circular Economy" and reading the best literary works from the contests on the topic of environmental protection and climate change.

The "O-DVA-JA-MO" project is implemented in 17 municipalities in Serbia with the support of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia, the European Union and the Embassy of Sweden.

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 increase the recycling rate in these municipalities to 15%.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!