The Municipality of Brod is working intensively to improve waste management, focusing on recycling construction materials, remediation of the municipal landfill, and public education—thereby contributing to a greener transition. We spoke with Milan Zečević, Mayor of the Municipality of Brod, about the main challenges in this process and the advantages this local community possesses.
Q: The Municipality of Brod is actively improving construction waste management through the CrossWaste project. Could you tell us more about the objectives of this project?
A: As a border local community, the Municipality of Brod fits within the eligibility requirements of numerous public calls under IPA policies. Accordingly, we applied for one of the calls published for 2023/2024, together with the Municipality of Borovo, as the call required one municipality from within the EU and one from outside the EU.
The CrossWaste project focuses on the management of construction waste, primarily generated through the removal of deteriorated and derelict buildings within our municipality. The project includes the preparation of several supporting documents, training activities, and awareness campaigns targeting our youngest population with regard to environmental protection and raising ecological awareness among our citizens.
The main component of the project involves the procurement of specialized machinery (a crusher) to process the aforementioned construction material and convert it into aggregate suitable for the rehabilitation of unclassified and gravel roads in the Municipality of Brod. In other words, this process is conceived as part of a recycling cycle in which waste is transformed into a sustainable and useful material.
In the long term, we believe that the project’s greatest impact will not lie solely in acquiring the crusher but in fostering a stronger sense of environmental responsibility among our citizens as part of the broader vision of a greener transition for our local community.
Q: Where does the development of the Local Environmental Action Plan (LEAP) currently stand, and what did the survey you conducted reveal?
A: Within the framework of the CrossWaste project, the Municipality of Brod developed the LEAP, which involved assessing all environmental capacities, existing realities, threats, and development opportunities that our municipality can offer in the implementation of new environmental standards.
Our idea is to integrate a more developed environmental awareness throughout the entire municipality. However, this unfortunately requires continuity, as well as political, social, and community partners who will consistently implement, improve, and pass on these efforts to future generations.
The survey results indicate that the public in Brod demonstrates a relatively high level of awareness regarding environmental issues. The main concerns relate to illegal dumping sites, water quality, and flood risks. At the same time, citizens proposed concrete measures—from education and improved organization to strengthening waste management systems and enhancing institutional accountability.
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Q: Could you clarify the current status of works at the municipal landfill, the planned environmental protection measures, and the timeline for completing the remediation?
A: The remediation of the municipal landfill is certainly one of the biggest challenges our local community is facing, not only in terms of environmental protection but also in terms of efficient disposal of newly generated waste. At the landfill site, waste has been disposed of improperly, and without planning for a long period of time, we believe for over 30 years, which is, after all, also the case in other local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, this issue is among the most urgent, requiring not only a temporary solution but also a planned, systematic approach.
The fire that broke out at the landfill, thanks to the great effort and coordination of all competent services, remained under control, but it also served as a unique opportunity for all of us to understand how important the issue of municipal waste disposal truly is.
The analysis we conducted by reviewing the operations of the unit of the municipal company responsible for waste collection and disposal, as well as the surveys we carried out, showed that over the past 10 years, the amount of waste we produce has drastically increased, which further supports the thesis that we are becoming an increasingly consumer-oriented society.
For example, over the past 10 years, the Municipality of Brod has experienced a significant population outflow. Still, despite a reduction in the number of municipal service users, there has been a considerable increase in the gross mass of waste. One of the biggest problems is certainly the process of selecting and separating mixed municipal waste, and we believe that the first step, which we are currently working on, is selecting and separating PET packaging, which accounts for the largest share of the volume of newly generated waste.
At present, the municipal landfill is implementing the second phase of remediation. The first phase included extinguishing the fire and introducing order into the waste disposal process so that we would not again reach a stage of uncontrolled landfill growth. A significant part of the access roads to the landfill has been completed, a regular gate control service has been introduced, and video surveillance has been installed, all to secure and regulate citizens’ access to this area.
The construction of internal roads within the landfill is currently underway. By the end of this year, we plan to significantly intensify activities related to the separation of PET packaging from other types of waste.
Interview by Jasna Dragojević
The interview was published in Energy portal Magazine DIGITALIZATION
