Go clean 2012 report go green

Final report for grants from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) S82 – Final report form for small scale grants Royal Norwegian Embassy Uzicka 43, 11040 Belgrade N-0032 Oslo Republic of Serbia

The application should be sent by e-mail to projects.belgrade@mfa.no.

1. Project information Name of the grant scheme

Responsible unit for the grant (unit in MFA or Embassy)

Embassy Fund 2012

Embassy in Belgrade

Agreement title

Go Clean 2 - Battery disposal awareness campaign Agreement number

Total amount granted from MFA (NOK)

23/NSE2012

37188

2. About the grant recipient 2.1 Contact information Name and abbreviation

Go Green Skopje - Citizens association for sustainable development and environmental protection Address

Postal code

City

Naum Ohridski 34

1000

Skopje

Telephone

Fax

Email

+38922733401

+38923131164

Country

Macedonia Website

info@bidizelen.org

www.gogreen.mk

Contact person

Email

Telephone/mobile phone

Antonio Jovanovski

antonio@bidizelen.org

+38970245413

3. About the project 3.1 Cooperating partner – information about changes, if any (if necessary, use attachment) Name

Contact person

Embassy of Sweden - Skopje, Macedonia

Biljana Dzartova - Petrovska

Address

Postal code

City

8 ma Udarna Brigada 2

1000

Skopje

Telephone

Email

Country

Macedonia Website

3297 885

biljana.dzartovapetrovska@foreign.ministry.se Type of organisation (tick one box on each line below) Norwegian,, Org.nr:

Non-Norwegian

Multilateral

Private sector

Governmental/Public sector

NGO

Other, please specify

3.2 Grant recipient’s and partner’s/partners’ respective roles in the project Brief description of the cooperation and division of roles between the grant recipient and cooperating partner(s)

Go Green was responsible to realize an educational and raising awareness campaign in the schools and to stimulate young people to promote responsible behavior and recycling of batteries. Furthermore, Go Green collected information for the research study and acted as an initiator for cooperation between the municipalities and the collective scheme company.

Partners of the project are: Embassy of Sweden - Skopje, Ministry of Environment of RM, City of Skopje, Macedonian institute for media and the Platform for youth sustainability. The role of the Embassy of Sweden is to lobby and promote the project among the relevant institutions and enable a network of partners and supporters of the project. The role of the Ministry of Environment is to put pressure on main stakeholders (importers, collective scheme and municipalities) to fulfill their responsibilities. Furthermore, the Ministry is actively involved in the research and assessment of the study conducted by the Macedonian institute for media.The role of the City of Skopje is to enable the educational campaign for the high schools on their territory. City of Skopje is also co-financing the project. The Macedonian institute for media is responsible for making a study for the situation of batteries in Macedonia. The study is funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The Platform is consisted of 8 youth organizations (AIESEC, Scouts of RM, Youth Educational Forum, OXO, Youth Can, LetsdoitMacedonia and Go Green) and their role is to support the educational campaign and to share information to their members about the project and the oppotunities for involvement (action, education, promotion) S82 Approved 09.03.2011

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3.3. Project implementation and results Brief summary of the project, experiences gained and the project’s main results. A brief description of the products/services (outputs) delivered should be included, and, if possible, the report should also describe the project’s effect on the target group (outcome).

Empty batteries represent a hazardous waste because they contain toxic metals (cadmium, lithium, mercury, nickel etc.) that can cause health and environmental damage. Macedonia adopted a law on batteries and accumulators on 21.10.2010 (Official Gazette of Republic of Macedonia 140/10) which came in force on 01.01.2011. Go Clean project started in 2011 with the purpose of raising awareness among young people, connecting the key stakeholders (importers and municipalities) and initiating a a system for collecting and recycling of waste batteries. The conslusions from Go Clean 1 were that there is general lack of awareness and the old habits are difficult to change. Furthermore, there is no exact information on the situation with batteries in Macedonia. Recommendations of the pilot project were that continuous education and a conducting a research is needed. Go Clean 2 aimed to raise awareness among young people, initiate a licensing of collective scheme company, put collection points (boxes) for collecting waste batteries and support a research for batteries.

The target group of the educational campaign was young people from 10 to 20 years. The activities realized for the campaign included 2 (two) youth conferences (March 3-4 and November 10), 10 (ten) educational events in high schools and 12 (twelve) in primary schools. These activities directly included 91 faculty students, 661 high school students and 355 primary school students. You can find the participants list from the enclosed to the report. The method used during the educational campaign was "pay it forward" which meant that all participants on the events needed to share the information with at least 3 others (friends or/and family). The content of the presentations included: effests of the toxic metals that the batteries contain, health consequences, legal framework and responsibilities, “where you can throw your empty batteries?” (Information on location of the special boxes – supermarkets, municipalities and schools) and “how to get involved?”. Despite raising awareness and education, the purpose of the campaign was to ACTIVATE young people to get involved in further information sharing and promotion of responsible behavior and recycling of batteries. The outcome was that 42 high school students got involved in further organizing educational info-meetings in primary schools. You can see the photos on the Go Clean facebook page. You can find the page on www.gogreen.mk. As part of this activity was also the donation of the special boxes for waste batteries in the high schools. 10 boxes were donated. The collective scheme is still not ready to bear more collections points (having in mind that Go Clean 1 put 105 boxes in supermarkets). Crucial activity for the system for management of waste batteries was having a licensed collective scheme company that will collect the batteries from the boxes. With the support of the Ministry of Environment and the lobby of the Swedish Embassy in Skopje we managed to get a licensed company for managing waste batteries, “Nula otpad DOO” (www.nulaotpad.com.mk). The company was licensed in October which changed some of the planned activities (i.e. the donations of the boxes and the timeline).

Another important activity of the project was the gathering of information and supporting the research. Go Green initiated and supported two researches. One was conducted by a Master student at UC Berkeley (USA), Mrs. Jannika Ilievska Sjostrand, and the other one was conducted by the Macedonian institute for media. Mrs. Ilievska research was focused on behavioral and structural barriers and opportunities when implementing the Law on Batteries and Accumulators, as well as, the Law on packaging and waste packaging. The Macedonian institute research is focused on the batteries situation in Macedonia and aims to develop a study with information on quantity batteries and waste batteries per annum, market factors etc. that will help the business sector to develop a sustainable system for batteries management. The research of Mrs. Ilievska was funded by the university itself and the research of the Macedonian institute for media is funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). Go Green acted as a base for gathering information, surveying young people (and their families), connecting the researchers with NGOs and municipalities, as well as, universities and faculties. The research of Mrs. Ilievska is put on the CD (enclosed) and the study from the Macedonian institute for media should be ready by 28th February. Do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Iliveska at jannikasi@berkeley.edu or Mrs.Marina Zlatevska (Institute) at: marinaz@mim.org.mk. Both research papers are important factors for increasing awareness among the key stakeholders (importers, companies, municipalities, citizens) about the opportunities and challenges of setting up a sustainable system for waste management of batteries.

The activities described above directly involved more than 1,000 participants. They also had to be be adjusted to partners activities. Therefore, the project timeline was prolonged for 2 more months. Below you can read more information about this.

Brief description of any deviations between the approved application and the actual implementation of the project, and how these may have affected the project’s results.

Two activities had crucial effect on adjusting the planned activities and its timeline.

1. Licensed company (collective scheme) for management of waste batteries It was expected that by June2012 the company will be licensed and it will collect the batteries from the boxes (from Go Clean 1, but also from Go Clean 2). The licencing happened in October which limited the donations of boxes planned in Go Clean 2. The newly established company lacked capacity (trucks, employees) to collect the existing waste batteries. That is why the additional boxes (planned 100) had to be limited to 10 boxes. Furthermore, the limited capacity of the company to collect the batteries outside of Skopje didn’t allow us to focus on expanding the project to other municipalities, as well as, the promotional activities (TV campaign, bilboards, radio, green hugs etc) were limited to local level. Because of this reason, the project also put more attention on the research and knowledge resutling with two research papers.

2. Macedonian institute for media – research project The institute is a carrier of SEPA (Swedish Environment Protection Agency) funds where Go Green is a partner for the research project and the expected start date of this project was 1st September. However, the administrative procedures postponed the start and it started in December 2012. Gathering information and interviewing people lasted until 08.02.2013 and this postponed the initial planned end date of the project - 31st December 2012. The publication is still not ready and it will be promoted on an event on 28th February. We shall send you the research as it becomes available.

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4. Documentation 4.1 Grant provided on the basis of documented costs A financial report should be provided in attachment to the report. The financial report shall include the project’s accounts with related explanations, and should be presented according to the same structure as in the application’s presentation of expenses.

Any other requirements to documentation and reporting should be delivered in accordance with the Agreement, and listed under point 6 Attachments.

4.2 Grant provided as lump sum Documentary proof of the activity’s implementation shall be delivered in accordance with the Agreement. Type of documentation attached should be listed under point 6 Attachments.

5.Additional information Any other information of relevance for the application

The quantity of collected waste batteries at the moment is 2 tons. There should be minimum of 10tons before they can be exported for recycling. Important to note is that the solution for recycling is also found. In August, we met with the greek company Polyeco, and they are willing to take over the batteries from Macedonia. They have well established and profitable system in Greece and they are recycling the batteries in Austria or Sweden. The collective scheme company is allowed to make the export of batteries and they are connected with the Green company.

Another important information related to the batteries waste management system in Macedonia is that a company from the Eastern region (Shtip municipality) recently got a license for managing with waste batteries. This means that the project activities (Go Clean 3) can be expanded in the Eastern region of Macedonia like education, promotion and putting boxes for waste batteries in the stores and public buildings.

The preparations for Go Clean 3 is in process and the project partners are increasing. A professinal marketing agency is engaged lead the PR campaign for 2013. Other supermarkets and importers are invited to join and support the project and to put boxes in their offices and sales points. It is estimated that approximately 6,000 boxes are needed to be put on the market in order the system to be rentable for the collective scheme companies to operate successfully.

6. Attachments Tick the boxes below if attached, and give each attachment a number. Any other attachments should also be listed.

Attached

Number

1

Attachment Financial report Additional cooperating partners (changes)

2

Publications, e.g.

3

List of participants

4

Poster, flyer

5

CD - photos and research of Berkely Master student

6

Narrative report

7. Date and confirmation I am authorised to sign legally binding agreements on behalf of the applicant, and confirm that the information contained in this application is correct to the best of my knowledge Place and date

Name/signature

Skopje, 18.02.2013

Antonio Jovanovski

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