Ceremonial signing of the contract by which Ekopak officially became the 32nd member of the European umbrella organization PRO EUROPE.
Ekopak has today officially become the 32nd member of the European umbrella organization of system operators, PRO EUROPE. The signing of the contract between Ursula Denison, Director of PRO EUROPE, and Amela Hrbat, Director of EKOPAK, took place in Sarajevo.
“Joining the PRO EUROPE family is a big and challenging step for EKOPAK. We look forward to cooperation, exchange of knowledge and experiences with partner operators of the Green Dot system, all with the aim of establishing an efficient system for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste in our country and, on behalf of the packaging industry, fulfilling the objectives of the Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste Management of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the lowest sustainable costs,” said Amela Hrbat, Director of EKOPAK. “The possibility of licensing products with the Green Dot as a symbol that means that a fee has been paid for that packaging to an authorized operator will help us increase the efficiency of our system, and it is a message to consumers to buy products in packaging from socially responsible companies that finance the system of separate collection and recycling of packaging waste.”
Ursula Denison, Director of PRO EUROPE, welcomed EKOPAK to the “Extended Producer Responsibility” network. “PRO EUROPE continues to grow as a platform for packaging waste management system operators who use the trademarked Green Dot symbol as a symbol for paying fees for the recovery and recycling of their product packaging. The Green Dot creates a unique link between companies that use this symbol on their packaging and finance the separate collection and recycling of packaging waste, consumers who dispose of their packaging waste separately, and authorized packaging waste management system operators who are responsible for its recovery and recycling. We look forward to working with EKOPAK to strengthen the Green Dot system as an “Extended Producer Responsibility” concept.”
Assistant to the Federal Minister of Environment and Tourism in the Environment Sector, Mehmed Cero, welcomed EKOPAK’s membership in PRO EUROPE, emphasizing that the Green Dot will identify those responsible and who are in the system of collecting and recycling packaging waste. “Our goal is to collect and recycle 35 percent of the total amount of waste by 2016, to bring it into sustainable flows so that it does not end up in landfills,” Cero added.
Head of the Department for the Environment at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Senad Oprašić, emphasized that EKOPAK’s membership in PRO EUROPE represents a significant step for BiH in the EU accession process.
With its membership in PRO EUROPE, Ekopak will enable its customers to use the Green Dot symbol on their packaging.
PRO EUROPE and the Green Dot through facts and figures:
– 31 countries in PRO EUROPE through their authorized operators.
– The Green Dot sign is registered in more than 170 countries.
– More than 170,000 companies mark their products with the Green Dot sign;
– About 460 billion units of packaging are marked with the Green Dot sign every year.
– Around 300 million citizens have access to separate packaging waste disposal, which is financed by PRO EUROPE members.
Soon Ekopak clients will be part of this big statistic.
More about PRO EUROPE at: https://www.pro-e.org
