T
he idea of recycling is a new trend in Macedonia, but it is still not part of the habits of most of the people here. I noticed that there is still some deficiency but also some positive results about the system here and I think that it is essential to inform people, especially the young, to help change mentalities. The decision of Macedonia to harmonize its legislation with EU regulations has led to start a national program in 2010 in order to raise awareness among the population and set up easiest way for recycling. That is why manufacturing companies decided to regroup and found bigger groups for the management of packaging waste. Pakomak is the most famous company, they promote a responsible attitude towards packaging waste, try to minimize the negative environmental impact and ensure a better quality of life for all. Pakomak is now very active in a lot of cities in Macedonia, by making some events or donating some containers to help collecting waste. With the glass bottles, the papers, the plastic bags or even other packaging materials they can re-use it and make something useful from the trash. Yellow
Мислење bins are used for plastic packaging and green ones for food or garden waste but I feel like a lot of people are not aware about this and don’t really care. You can see everything mixed in the different bins and that make it harder after to make the selection for future proper use. Beside those companies, most of the recycling process is made by free riders mostly from Roma community. Upon arriving in Skopje, I began to notice horse and motorcycle carts filled to the brim with cardboard or plastic, standing by the side of the road attended by a child while a relative searched for more materials in the trash. But this kind of recycling is considered informal as they take plastic bottles and papers from the containers to sell it to some private recycling
centres such as Komuna. This is a difficult work, and it is unrecognized as employment by the government. In one hand, many people in Skopje recognize the service being done but in the other hand they take the bottles and papers from the containers given by Pakomak for example, which is the major source of profitable waste. And this is the main problem between the cohabitation of those two different systems in the same city. As a non-native speaker in Skopje for only a brief period of time and without the full resources needed to develop many conclusions, I recognize that the research that I have done barely scratches the surface of these two interconnected issues. So far, I cannot but note that a lot of efforts are made in this field but now, the hardest part remains to be done: change the mentality of the population regarding recycle. There are too many plastic bags given when we do shopping, too much waste packaging thrown on the street, and people need to learn how to make the selection between all their domestic trash.
VOICES - 21