- Ekopak is one of the two members presented on behalf of AmCham Bosnia and Herzegovina within AmCham Europe in the segment of best CSR practices.
- World Environment Day-Ekopak introduced Bjelave Student Center into the recycling system.
- Boys Jure and Marko Sliskovic, stars of recycling in Novi Travnik Municipality, received awards and gifts
Ekopak is one of the two members presented on behalf of AmCham Bosnia and Herzegovina within AmCham Europe in the segment of best CSR practices
Ekopak has been a member of AmCham BiH for many years and actively participates in the work of the Health Care & Environment Committee, which provides support in overcoming the challenges that Ekopak faces on a daily basis. Our work has been recognized and presented BY aMcHAM Bosnia and Herzegovina within AmCham Europe in the segment of best CSR practices.
AmChams in Europe, an umbrella organization of 46 AmChams from 44 countries in partnership with the Washington, DC-based Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) have collected feedback from all AmChams about how American, European or local companies contribute to the development of local communities by contributing to the ESG factors. CIPE is an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and works with local partners around the world to craft business-driven solutions to socio-economic problems that affect millions of people.
AmCham Bosnia and Herzegovina were honored to apply with two great examples from two members: Ekopak and Prevent CEE (Prevent Fabrics).
Ekopak’s core business is social responsibility – the establishment and development of the packaging waste recycling system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For ten years Ekopak is actively working on developing packaging waste recycling system accordant with the best European practices and for good of the whole community.
So far, Ekopak delivered about 90.000 tons of packaging waste to recycling. Coverted it into trucks, that would be composition of about 5,000 trucks, lined up one after the other is the distance from Sarajevo to Konjic (approximately 60 kilometres). This amount of packaging did not end up discarded in nature, nor it was disposed of in landfills, but it ended up in the recycling process where packaging waste was given new value.
Ekopak is very involved in local communities where work on raising the awareness of citizens, especially children.
Ekopak is also active internationally, as a member of two umbrella European packaging organizations EXPRA and Pro Europe.
All those has been achieved with four employees only.
“As a proud member of AmCham Bosnia and Herzegovina, we gladly accepted the invitation and the opportunity to introduce other members to the work of Ekopak, whose core business is social responsibility. I think we can be proud of all our achievements in terms of recycling packaging waste and raising citizens’ awareness of the importance of recycling and environmental protection in general. If we take into account the conditions in our country in which Ekopak operates, and poorly developed waste collection capacity and very limited waste recycling capacity, then our results become even more important. It is also important to us that AmCham Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the Health Care & Environment Committee, provides support to our work, which makes it much easier for us to successfully overcome the many challenges we face”, they said.
World Environment Day-Ekopak introduced Bjelave Student Center into the recycling system
On Saturday, June 5 Ekopak marked the World Environment Day in an appropriate way.
Ekopak representatives in cooperation with students from Student Center Bjelave. Sarajevo cleaned green areas in front of the dormitory, planted a beautiful flower island, set up containers for separate collection of packaging waste and introduced the this Student Center into Ekopak recycling system.
Through its activities, Ekopak develops awareness about importance of environmental protection and implements actions with citizens. It is through this activity on World Environment Day that we want to raise awareness about importance of packaging waste recycling and environmental protection in general.
“In order to establish a system of separate collection and recycling of packaging waste, it is necessary to work in two directions at the same time. One is the education of the population where we try to bring out the importance of change in the treatment of packaging waste closer to the citizens. That is why Ekopak carries out activities with children and young people. Because it is from them that the change and acceptance of a new culture of living begins, which means the separate disposal of packaging waste”, said Amela Hrbat, Managing Director of Ekopak.
Despite the extremely challenging situation due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ekopak with its partners – consisting of 21 collectors from all over the Federation of BiH and on behalf of more than 700 producers, importers, distributors and traders who transferred the obligation to manage packaging and packaging waste, send 11,911 tons of packaging waste for recycling. Since its establishment in 2012, Ekopak has sent a total of close to 90,000 tons of packaging waste for recycling.
Boys Jure and Marko Sliskovic, stars of recycling in Novi Travnik Municipality, received awards and gifts
Ten-year-old boys from Novi Travnik, Jure and Marko Sliskovic, have become real little recycling stars in their municipality. This municipality joined the regional project “Management of glass packaging in the Western Balkans” which in addition to Bosnia and Herzegovina is being implemented in Serbia and Northern Macedonia by PROs Sekopak, Pakomak and Ekopak. In Novi Travnik, urban and rural areas of this municipality, waste-bins for glass were set up to collect glass packaging. This attracted the attention of the boys who initiated an action of collecting glass packaging.
Their commitment to collecting glass packaging and protecting the environment in general did not go unnoticed, so Ekopak in cooperation with the utility company Vilenica-Cistoca and the Municipality of Novi Travnik, at the celebration of the Day of the Municipality of Novi Travnik, presented the boys with special recognition and gifts.
German Organization for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the National Alliance for Local Economic Development “Naled” from Serbia in cooperation with the first operator of the packaging waste management system in Bosnia and Herzegovina “Ekopak”, and system operators “Sekopak” from Serbia and ” Pakomak “from Northern Macedonia, as well as the Association for Economic Development of Herzegovina REDAH and the Association of Local Self-Government Units ZELS, launched a regional project” Management of glass packaging in the Western Balkans ” which will be implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bihać and Novi Travnik municipalities. Konjic and Ilidža and one of the goals is to increase the collection rate of glass packaging in these municipalities by 20%.