Report warns Serbia has no plastic waste management system

NEWS 11.01.202120:25
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The State Audit Institution (DRI) warned on Monday that Serbia does not have a plastic waste management system.

The DRI report on plastic waste management said that the country produced 897,000 tons of plastic waste between 2017 and 2019 and that there was no system to collect that waste and recycle it. It said that just two percent of plastic waste or 14,000 tons is being recycled leaving the country without the benefits of a circular approach to the problem and causing environmental harm.

The report said that Serbia had aligned its regulations on waste management with the European Union acquis but had not created the mechanisms to implement them. It warned that the national plan on waste management for the 2015-19 period had not been adopted and that no reliable data on communal waste management is available.

The DRI said that the Environmental Protection Ministry failed to inspect packaging waste management facilities which led it to make several recommendations to the ministry.