I just got back from my trip to Serbia, where I had never been before. It’s a place that is definitely worth seeing and that is, most certainly, worth eating at... Unfortunately, I could only stay for four days and most of the time I spent in a warehouse that was packed with old electronic appliances and that made me feel tiny leaning on a pile of stacked disused refrigerators. However, let’s not complain since, at the end of the day, I wasn’t there to exclusively enjoy the very good food that was on offer, but to help prepare a project that is due to be finished in May next year (2012). I am convinced that this will not have been my last trip to Serbia and I’m looking forward to returning and spending another few days in Serbia soon.
Surely it comes as no surprise when I tell you now that this project has got something to do with all the electronic scrap piling up in said warehouse and that it aims to gradually make these piles disappear and turn them into useful resources. Overall, the warehouse takes up an area of approximately 8,000 m² and provides enough storage space for numerous stacks of disused cooling units and old electric devices. The latter probably represents only a small percentage of the amount of e-waste generated in Serbia every year, which amounts to at least 30,000 tons (based on rough estimates of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Serbia). However, this is not it. All over Serbia, there are still around 40,000 tons of leftover waste that is stored in various warehouses or disposed at landfills and wild landfills.
The warehouse is soon to accommodate a recycling plant that is designed to treat about 230,000 cooling units a year in a two-shift operation. It’s worth considering a chain of 240,000 refrigerators which consists of fridges with an average height of 1.30 metres. This chain can be expected to be 2,990 km long, which would equal the length of the Himalaya Mountains (approx. 3,000 km). Now that sounds very intimidating. In addition to this, electronic scrap is also sought to be processed inside the same plant. Just think about it, all that will be left of the towering fridges and electronic devices in the end are very small same-size material particles. This means there will really be no reason anymore for me to feel tiny or intimidated....
Background Info
After having submitted its application to the EU in 2009, Serbia is a potential candidate country for EU membership and may become an official candidate in March 2012 at the earliest. This also means that an increasing focus on an environmental strategy that complies with that of the EU is essential. Just think about it, one-third of all the regulations which are required to synchronize with European Union legislation fall under the environmental region. As a part of this integration process, the Republic of Serbia will receive important financial resources amounting to 600m Euros from the European Union between 2011 and 2013, as well as significantly higher financial resources in the long-term run.
