Short description of the overall project

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) are supporting Serbia’s efforts to improve its waste management infrastructure with a joint €150 million investment.

Short description of activities financed by the donation

The investment, for which the EBRD and AFD are each extending a €75 million sovereign loan to Serbia, will finance the construction or extension of seven regional landfills and a multi-regional primary sorting system. It will also support the infrastructure, which will be built in line with European Union (EU) standards, for waste sorting, waste recycling, and biodegradable waste treatment and recovery.

In the first phase of the project, the new waste systems will serve 29 Serbian municipalities, with a total of over 900,000 residents, covering approximately 13 per cent of the Serbian population. One of the goals of the joint project is to promote household source separation and the circular economy of recyclable waste.

Construction will first start in the Duboko, Kalenić, Nova Varoš and Sombor regions, while three remaining regions will be determined at a later stage of the project’s implementation.

The investment will help to reduce negative impacts related to waste production and management. It is expected to lead to a reduction of around 178,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions and increase the amount of recycled waste by more than 19,000 tonnes per year.

In addition to providing finance, the EBRD and AFD will support the Ministry of Environmental Protection and regional solid waste companies in preparing regional waste management plans. These plans will define waste management activities in each solid waste region financed by the investment, with objectives to increase waste collection, separation at source and recycling.