"For a Pollution-Free Serbia"
With Recycling to Success

"We recycle some 2000 tons of plastic waste a year, which equals some 200 transport trucks worth of plastic in its pressed state and/or over 2000 transport trucks worth of unprocessed plastic waste. This is equal to an entire waste disposal site”, says Rade Simić, owner and Director of the Brzan-plast enterprise from Brzan.

Ensuring environmental sustainability represents one of eight Millennium Development Goals of the UN, adopted in Serbia as well. Environmental care is equally an obligation of all citizens and state institutions and public administration bodies at all levels. The largest share of responsibility certainly lies with biggest polluters – often large production systems. Lately, however, noticeable is the trend of the development of enterprises whose main occupation is finding solutions to these problems, through collection and recycling of harmful waste materials.

It was thanks to the loan of the Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia that we managed to create a recycling plant which is unique in Serbia , and by operating successfully be able to plan doubling our capacities next year.

The Brzan-plast company was established in 1990 in the Brzan community within the Batočina municipality. The production programme comprises more than 100 plastic products: plumbing, sewerage and electrical insulation pipes, garden hoses, fluotherm pipes, thermal folios and similar. Another facility was opened in 2001, which deals exclusively in collecting and recycling waste raw materials of PET packaging materials and plastics. Thanks to the CSD 18 million loan, which was approved by the Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia in 2003, the enterprise managed to reach the recycling level of some 150 tons a month. 40 workers were employed, facilities were expanded and modernized, necessary equipment for recycling and production was procured.

The Brzan-plast company organizes the collection, purchase and processing (cutting, washing, drying) of plastic waste, and its usage in the production of plastic products and folios. The main advantage of using raw materials of recycled materials is large savings in terms of production costs: the regranulate is up to 40% cheaper than imported raw materials. In this way, in addition to achieving the economic aims of the company, considerable social objectives are achieved as well. According to the Director of the company, the entire region has been cleaned of plastic waste, which makes up to 5% of waste and disposal sites, and thanks to the development of the suppliers' network, there has been less waste in Serbia in general. More than 100 suppliers (enterprises and natural persons) from all over the country transport pressed packaging materials at a cost of 150 euros per ton, which has made the import of plastic raw materials unnecessary and enabled the exports of plastic products into Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Hungary and Romania .

The long-term objective is that a supplier with a pressing facility is positioned in every Serbian municipality. Brzan-plast is seen as the network focal point because it independently develops and produces recycling machines (at the International Fair of Utility Equipment held in Leskovac in 2004, the mill for grinding plastic waste brought them the first award of the Recycling Agency of the Republic of Serbia in the area of innovations), so that suppliers are provided at the same time both with the equipment and a secure market. Over the last two years they have sold 30 packaging presses and 12 mills for grinding plastic waste.

Plans for the future include the expansion of capacities for introducing new recycling and production lines, employment of another 50 employees and further development of the supplier network. It is certain that another wider goal is to be achieved as an outcome of these activities: a cleaner and more beautiful Serbia .

The Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia provides loans on most favorable conditions for programmes of economic and regional development, for stimulating small and medium-sized enterprises, for stimulating the development of artisanship and service occupations, as well as for stimulating the competitiveness and liquidity of national economy, thus directly implementing the recommendations set in the Poverty Reduction Strategy.