Prijedor

Date and time of the PMC
17 January 2025 14-16.30 CET (Prijedor Time)

Registration
Register on eventbrite clicking on this link

Link to videoconferencing room
Participants attending the event online will receive the link to the virtual room after completing the registration process on eventbrite (see above).

Challenge
The importance and value of waste in developed countries, where it represents an essential resource, has been realized for quite a while. Every type of waste has its own useful dimension, and in order to maximize the value of waste, it is necessary to collect it selectively at the place where the waste is generated.

The low level of selective collection of the local waste is a challenge for many developing countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina and the City of Prijedor, which participates in the CLIMABOROUGH as the follower city. The process of constant urbanization puts multiple pressures on the waste management system in the city. Most of the local waste is generated in urban areas where the population is the highest. The accumulation of large amounts of waste in a limited space, the impossibility of regularly emptying containers due to frequent traffic, which increases greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the insufficient level of awareness among the population about the importance of this topic, are key problems that make this challenge even greater. A special problem in rural local communities is packaging waste from pesticides used in agriculture, which falls under hazardous waste, and which is currently disposed of together with other waste or ends up in illegal landfills, which is certainly the worst option.

In the upcoming period, in cooperation with an authorized company, space should be provided for separating that waste, especially electrical and electronic waste. Therefore, it can be concluded that the disposal of solid waste in the city of Prijedor represents a major environmental problem, because solid waste pollutes all components of the environment: air, soil, surface and underground water. This situation can have a negative impact and pose a great danger to people’s health.

City of Prijedor is a local community with about 90000 inhabitants. About 75% of the population, or about 70,000 inhabitants, is covered by the services of the public utility company. About 50% of the coverage of the local community is in rural areas where the services of public utility companies are not fully available. Currently, indicators show that around 25,000 tons of waste of various types are collected annually in the area of the city of Prijedor. Of this amount, less than 1% is collected for further exploitation, i.e. around 230t of waste annually. Although the city company for waste management is involved in value chains and has an established market, the quantities of waste that are further exploited (recycled) are still at the level of statistical error. This is a clear indication that there is huge room for improvement.

Expected characteristics of the solution(s) looked for
The project will be implemented in one or more selected urban areas of City of Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, implying the implementation of measures whose main goal is to create assumptions for increasing the amount of selectively collected waste. General intention is to have as least two specific urban parts of the city – one characterised by the relatively high density of the residental multiple-floor buildings, and the other characterised by the individual household objects. Estimated number of inhabitants per one selected part of the city is 9.000 max. This approach will enable better of understanding of the specifics, similarities and/or differences in the behivioral patterns in selective waste collection.

The solution should include an element of gamification, particularly in order to activate the younger population to participate in the implementation of the project. Additionally, the above mentioned would ensure greater visibility and easier participation in the project.

Envisaged solutions should enable monitoring of the combined performance indicators, i.e. quantities of properly separated waste per type, location, household and individual in a specific time frame and under different incentive policies.

The key stakeholders of this project are the city utility company and local authorities. At the same time, local residents should also be involved in the activities. It is necessary to raise public awareness and organize educational activities about waste sorting that can be reused and be a valuable raw material for a climate-neutral economy.