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FULLY COMMITTED TO SERBIA’S GREEN TRANSITION
DRAGAN RAJKOVIĆ,TETRA PAK REGIONAL SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR, EUROPE & CENTRAL ASIA
It’s been 70 years since we started producing a beverage carton that should save more than it costs. Serbia is one of the key spots on our global map, and our Gornji Milanovac factory is one of the best in class. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated how important it is to have a resilient food system and to make food safe and available everywhere. Serbia and its major food manufacturers have done an excellent job of keeping the dairy and juice infrastructure going during these very challenging times.
Today, more than ever, our business is very dedicated to climate neutrality, biodiversity preservation and effective waste management. Plant-based raw materials, such as wood and sugar cane, are essential to our low-carbon circular economy approach.
The recycling rate of beverage cartons in Europe has increased from just over 5% in 1993 to more than 51% in 2019. And our aim is to collect 90% of all used beverage cartons by 2030.
AN EFFECTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR SERBIA Over the past 10 years, we have worked hard to increase the level of beverage carton recycling in Serbia and invested significantly in collection systems and a local paper mill. However, if we want more recycling, there must be more waste collection supported by adequate infrastructure. Increasing the collection rate is possible through improved Extended Producer Responsibility, as a scheme based on the shared responsibility model for everyone in the value chain and, as part of that, Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) like the one the Serbian government aims to introduce. In practise, a DRS system would require Serbian consumers to pay a small deposit at the point of purchase, which they would get back when returning the empty container for recycling. The best results are achieved when this includes all packaging formats. Our recent project in Kragujevac shows how a DRS system can also reward consumers via public transportation or mobile communications financial recompense. With innovations in reverse vending machines and smart bin technologies and digitalisation, Serbia has an opportunity to set up a broad DRS that will improve packaging waste collection and recycling results significantly. A deposit system model needs to be set up in a broad way from the perspective of products types, packaging material types and packaging formats and sizes. The introduction of so-called “smart” or “digital” DRS, with broad scope, allows high collection results and the high quality of various collected packaging as a raw material for recyclers. A broad system will result in reduced costs per unit, reduced consumer confusion on how to contribute to the collection, a much higher influence on achieving climate goals and conditions to use collected material as recycled content for new production, which will also support the development of local recycling capacities.
Tetra Pak welcomes the government’s commitment to sustainability and looks forward to helping Serbia achieve its ambitious environmental goals.
The estimate of packaging placed on the Serbian market in 2020 is at 66 kg per capita, while the projection for 2030 is 78 kg per capita. The main recommendations for the Serbian packaging waste management system include: the obligation for households to sort waste, the inclusion of the informal collection sector, ensuring equal rules for all actors, a well-functioning monitoring system and for the full net cost of waste collection, sorting and treatment to be covered by all producers and brand owners.
Proven Business Across THE NORDIC MARKET
Elnos Group is a domestic company that considers Sweden, Iceland and Norway as its second home. Headquartered in Southeast Europe, it operates throughout the continent in the field of electrical energy, specialising in facilities of up to 400 kV
With a scope of work that encompasses participation in the most challenging and complex energy projects, Elnos Group has to date confirmed its professionalism and expertise on multiple occasions. Employing more than 600 workers, it operates in 14 business centres in Southeast, Central, Northern and Southern Europe.
NORDIC SPOTLIGHT
Over the ten years of its work on the Nordic market, Elnos Group has successfully implemented more than 90 projects. With engagements in Sweden, Norway and Iceland, the company’s teams have so far reconstructed and built thousands of kilometres of transmission lines and dozens of substations in these countries.
Through an expert approach to projects, the staff of Elnos Group have repeatedly left the public breathless with their implementing of (im)possible missions. They constructed the 220 kV Kröflulína 3 transmission line across Icelandic lava fields, participated in the construction of the Búrfell 2 hydroelectric power plant (270 MW) that’s located 100 metres underground, built a 100-metre-high transmission line on the shores of Sweden’s Lake Mälaren, participated in the construction of the longest HVDC interconnection in Europe and much more.
According to Elnos Group Management Board Vice President Branko Torbica, “Elnos Group is today one of the leading service providers in the Nordic countries, and to date we’ve left our greatest mark by working on the Swedish and Icelandic markets. Our future plans include strengthening our existing portfolio in these two countries, with the intention of expanding it in the segment of infrastructure and industry. We also aim to develop further on the market in Norway, the country where we formed part of the capital project for the construction of the NordLink HVDC interconnection”.
Adding that the company is also making increasingly significant strides on other European markets, Torbica explains: “We are increasingly working in Germany and the Netherlands, and during the previous few months we’ve signed our first contracts in Portugal and the UK, while we also plan to enter the Danish market by the end of this year”.
This Group today works in cooperation with local Scandinavian partners on the implementing of projects for companies Svenska Kraftnät, Vattenfall, E.ON, Elevio, Landsnet, Landsvirkjun and many others.
Elnos has such strong business links with the markets of the Nordic countries that it even broke down barriers during the pandemic. It was then that Elnos Group teams travelled to Iceland and Sweden on special charter flights, despite the complete shutdown of European airports then in force, in order to continue implementing capital projects that had previously been initiated in these countries.
According to Elnos Nordic Director of Operations Nenad Vukomanović, “with the establishing of site management at the level of Elnos Nordic, we contributed to the creating of all necessary conditions for even more intensive cooperation with our partners. The Nordic market is one of the most important markets of the Elnos Group and I’m convinced that we’re now on the threshold of a new and even more successful stage of our operations in this part of Europe”.
Elnos Group teams travelled to Iceland and Sweden on special charter flights during the period of the complete shutdown of European airports, in order to continue implementing capital projects previously initiated in these countries
