Due to the insufficient number of containers for the disposal of glass packaging, but also the lack of appropriate recycling facilities, in the Western Balkans glass is significantly less recycled than in the EU member states. EU countries recycle about 70% of glass packaging annually, while in BiH this amount is only 12%.

Most of the used glass in our country ends up in landfills or illegal dumps and in such conditions it takes as much as 5,000 years to decompose.

Given that glass is the only packaging material with 100% recycling efficiency and can be recycled indefinitely, we are free to award it the title - "star of the recycling industry"! Therefore, before we put next time an empty glass bottle or jar from the winter in a container with other municipal waste, we should keep in mind some of the following facts:

  1. By recycling one glass bottle, a 100W bulb can glow for a full 4 hours!
  2. By recycling one glass bottle, you save energy to power your computer for 25 minutes!
  3. Recycling one ton of glass saves 42Kwh of electricity or 19 liters of oil!
  4. By recycling 1000 kilograms of glass, the emission of harmful gases is reduced by 3 kilograms compared to the production of new glass.
  5. By recycling glass, we can save about 40% of the energy and 50% of water needed to produce new glass and reduce air pollution by 20% and water by 50%.

In order to make the situation, regarding the management of glass packaging waste in the region more favorable in the coming period, the project "Management of glass packaging in the Western Balkans" is being implemented. More than a thousand special containers for disposing of glass packaging will be placed in urban and rural areas of BiH, Serbia and Northern Macedonia. In our country, the project is being implemented in Konjic, Bihać, Novi Travnik and the Municipality of Ilidža and the goal is to increase the amount of collected glass packaging in the region by 20%. The project in BiH is being implemented by Naled, GIZ, Redah and company Ekopak.