[TV Euronews] Serbia needs a deposit system for returning packaging

According to the European Union Directive of 2018, plastic caps on bottles will no longer be able to be separated from the packaging. Companies have the opportunity to adapt to this change until the end of 2024, and some in Serbia have already done so. Slobodan Krstović, Sustainable Development Director at NALED, spoke about the very effectiveness of such a measure, the introduction of a deposit system for the return of packaging.

He commented that on a global level, the practice of introducing plastic caps on bottles is a step forward, considering that the countries of Western Europe have moved a little further in collecting packaging waste, and that this change represents a certain added value, additional quantities that will be recycled, and not ending up in a landfill or in nature.

- On the other hand, our companies have partially introduced this practice. At first it irritated the citizens, but it seems to me that we are all used to such bottles. Our task is to ensure that the collected quantities end up in recycling and to properly show what the circular economy is in action - said Krstović.

He added that now the question of all questions is how to increase the collection of packaging waste in Serbia and the percentage of recycling from year to year and reach the goals set by the European Union by 2030.

- Those goals are not simple at all, they are 90% recycled cardboard, 75% glass, 55% plastic. What Serbia needs is an upgrade of the existing system of extended producer responsibility and the introduction of a deposit system, which is NALED's recommendation - Krstović pointed out and added that in this way over 90% of the packaging that is put on the market is collected at the same time.