IFC launched Western Balkans Recycling Linkage Project - 100m USD for investment in that domain

International Financial Corporation (IFC) has launched its Recycling Linkages project in the countries of western Balkans - Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, and the aim of that project is to collect over 100m USD worth of investments for that purpose.

Project Manager Valentina Popovska pointed out that those countries annually produced 0.36 tons of waste per capita, that is, 0.9 tons per capita when industrial waste was included in the calculation.

Popovska pointed out at the meeting in hotel "Zira" that recycling grew faster than the new quantities of waste, which shows that the people have become more environmentally aware.

Total of 1.4m tons of waste were recycled on annual basis at the beginning of the project in 2005. In 2008, 1.8m tons of waste were recycled and annual turnover amounts to about 0.4 billion EUR. Recycling in the region has been increased by 70% over the past three years, while the recycling of metal grew by 83%, the recycling of plastic by 116% and paper recycling by 21%.

IFC has established cooperation with over 90 companies in the region that deal with recycling of paper, plastic, metal, glass, rubber, textile and electronic waste, and these companies managed to attract about 30m EUR worth of investments.

That project also helped small and mid-sized enterprises in that business, of which 250 representatives attended various courses.