This past week on November 17th, we organized a regional debate on the challenges about the Law on Management of Additional Waste Streams, with special reference to textile. The debate was attended by representatives from LC, textile companies, textile traders, associations working on waste issues and a large number of citizens.
The moderator of the whole event was the executive director of LCDF, Nevenka Longurova Girova, who emphasized that the expectations from this law are high, especially in terms of contributing to the reduction of textile waste, because the textile currently is being deposited, and the end goal of the law is to recycle it.
“Our foundation for a long time has been dealing with solving the problem of textile waste and using it as a resource to produce new products with added value, that is why we pay special attention to the promotion of LMAWS, which will be implemented starting January 1, 2023”.
In the panel discussion, Adriana Lavchiska, senior program coordinator at FOSM, gave her presentation, who emphasized the goal of the Green Leap program, partnerships for climate change and the importance of supporting such initiatives from civil society organizations.
-“FOSM works on the issue of environmental protection, because it is a global trend, a topic that is becoming more and more bitter, and we believe that with our support we can help our society to deal with all the challenges that climate change brings, precisely because of that is why we support COs, which are advocating for policy changes (how good they are, how compliant they are with the EU and how well they are implemented).
-“We supported LCDF in the work to reduce textile waste and we were happy with the results they achieved, how that experiment – a creative way of dealing with waste, it showed that something can be done and it worked, and they came up with the idea that the new law should be publicly promoted, in order for the stakeholders to be timely informed about their obligations, in order to properly implement the Law from January 1, 2023″.
She also emphasized that it is crucial to involve all of us jointly and equally in climate change, in solving all issues, so we can get some effect, which is crucial for a justified transition towards green economy.
The program director of LCDF, Boris Sharkovski, elaborated the legal solution and referred to the legal provisions that refer to the obligations of textile manufacturers, textile traders and citizens.
-“This is a good law written on paper, according to me too optimistic, because the national goals are high, we will see from the middle of next year whether it is good or bad. The purpose of this law is to reduce the negative impact of waste materials and to improve environmental protection standards. Let us all be responsible and set our own culture of behavior, that’s exactly why we worked with children from the second grade and normally we continue to see textile waste as a resource for new products with added value”.
The state environmental inspector Blagoj Ignoski spoke of his many years of experience with textile waste as a potential polluter of the environment and emphasized that the inspectorate is ready to begin the implementation of LMAWS, but advises that it is most important to start with control on the organization of collection centers, because without them the law will not function.
Borche Vezenkov, communal municipal inspector in the Municipality of Shtip, in his address, emphasized that 80% of the commercial waste belongs to the textile waste and ends up in the city landfill, because they do not have a way and organization to collect it. The municipality, in cooperation with Pakomak, has placed containers for separated waste and they can be completed by placing a container just for textile waste. He emphasized that the problem is initially in education, and it should start from there, through continuous educational events to raise awareness about environmental protection and waste reuse.
Kiril Nashkov, owner of a textile company and registered legal entity for collection of textile waste, also had his presentation, who gave an overview of the administrative procedures encountered in the entire process and the benefits of the new Law.
-“I salute this law and I appeal to the competent authorities that the only way for our motivation is to declare textile waste as a material of zero or symbolic value, so that we can reuse it, and thereby provide new jobs, clean environment, healthier and better quality of life.
Broadcasted during the event were, video content from the project activities, a presentation of unique exhibits from waste, that were made during the project and the event ended with creative children’s fashion performance, moderated by Sanja Risteski, doctor of technical sciences from the field of textile science and technology, at the department for textile and clothing design at Technological-Technical Faculty-UGD.
Contribution to this whole cycle had the students from the Technological-Technical Faculty, from Goce Delchev-Shtip University and the other professional staff from the University.
Short videos with instructions for acting according to the provisions and promotion of the law, the training center and the project activities are available on the electronic channels of LCDF (www.frlz.org.mk; You tube, www.recikliraj.mk).
This event is part of the project “4R( reduce, recycle, reuse, repurpose) Social inclusion through circular economy”, implemented by the Local community development foundation-Shtip, and is financially supported by the Open Society Foundation-Macedonia.
In case you have not followed the panel discussion, it is available at the following LINK.
Last modified: 25.11.2022
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