In the latest eco-action, carried out as part of the multi-year platform “Are You Recycling!?”, Pivara Skopje’s volunteers cleaned several kilometers of the Vardar River quay in the municipalities of Aerodrom and Gazi Baba in Skopje. The entire dry waste from the tracks and banks on both sides of the river was collected to be further appropriately selected and recycled.

As in previous ones, the ambassadors of the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States, with embassy staff members took active participation in this volunteer eco-action of Pivara Skopje and this time reinforcements came from volunteers from the SOS Children’s Village and the Economic Chamber of Northwestern Macedonia. The eco-action was also welcomed by the Mayor of Gazi Baba. Traditionally, the entire logistical support for the transportation, selection and recycling of collected waste was provided by Pakomak. The divers from the speleological society ‘Vrelo’ were responsible for the extraction of the waste from the river.

“Pivara Skopje is dedicated to achieving its goals and commitments towards a ‘world without waste’. This eco-action, like the previous ones, demonstrates that as a company, but also as individuals, we are ready to allocate funds and part of our working hours to contribute to those commitments. I am delighted that with each new volunteer action the number of our partners that share the same values and who support us in our mission is steadily increasing,” said the General Manager of Pivara Skopje Dan Timotin. “With the volunteer activities we are organizing together with our partners, we want to send a clear message and appeal to the entire community that everyone should take their share of responsibility and become more involved in tackling the pollution problem, thereby creating a sustainable future for us and for future generations,” Timotin emphasized.

The platform “Are You Recycling!?”, designed to raise public awareness for the need of waste collection and recycling, was launched in 2016 with the organization of the first eco-action to clean up the Vardar quay and continued in the next two years, with the second eco-action for cleaning the riverside and the waters of Vardar, as well as cleaning the surroundings and the waters of Lake Matka. In these actions a total of over 30m³ of waste was collected, for which over 300 hours of volunteer work were pledged. A volunteer activity was organized last year to raise public awareness about replacing non-biodegradable plastic bags with alternatives that do not pollute the environment, and an educational caravan was implemented that covered over 10,000 primary school pupils.

For the CEO of Pakomak, a specialized packaging waste management company, which is a partner of Pivara Skopje in all these actions, the responsibility and obligations for addressing environmental protection challenges should be equally distributed among all stakeholders in society.

“Since our establishment until today, thanks to the finances and support of our founders, like Pivara Skopje and our other members, we have successfully met and exceeded the environmental goals and targets for the collection and proper treatment of packaging waste determined by the state. But there are companies and entities that place various packaging on the market and generate waste, but do not participate in financing the collection and recycling systems, nor do they pay the state for it, which directly damages the budget and the environment. This problem must be properly addressed and resolved,” said Filip Ivanovski, CEO of Pakomak.

Keeping in line with Coca-Cola HBC’s global leadership in sustainable development as well as HEINEKEN’s sustainability practices, Pivara Skopje continuously invests and implements practices that contribute to a cleaner environment, such as the use of fully recyclable packaging, applying water and energy saving measures, as well as reducing all emissions from production, including the appropriate treatment and reuse of water used in the production process. As one of the founders of Pakomak, Pivara Skopje is constantly investing in the efficiency of the system for the collection and recycling of all packaging waste in the country.

For its leading role in the field of sustainable development and the evident results in environmental protection, Pivara Skopje has received numerous domestic and international accolades including this year’s United Nations’ “Leaders of Sustainable Development Goals” awarded within the project “Building Cross-Sectoral Sustainable Partnerships for Sustainable Development” funded by the European Union and implemented by the civic organization “Konekt”.