NEWSLETTER FOR THE 4th QUARTER OF 2022

First of all, we wish you a happy New Year with lot of good health, happiness and business success.
Another successful business year is behind us! For us, 2022 was special because we marked 10 years of our successful work. On this occasion, throughout the year we realized numerous activities such as reforestation, children's workshops, promotions, distribution of certificates to companies for their socially responsible involvement towards the recycling, but also important business meetings.

This year was very successfull business year for us. We are proud of the fact that we have achieved all the set business goals and that network of our clients, partners and associates, who have trusted us to manage packaging waste on their behalf and with whose support we are developing the established system, is constantly expanding.

The last quarter of 2022 was marked by reforestation activities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead of organizing expensive events to mark our anniversary we decided to direct funds to socially beneficial purposes. We organized planting of friendship trees in Tuzla, Banja Luka, Blidinje, Kreševo, Čitluk and Zenica. Ekopak planted hundreds of trees and we will finish this campaign with friendship trees in Sarajevo next spring.

We organized fun and educational workshops for children called "Ekopak Caravan Month". Ekopak visited schools and kindergartens throughout BiH and taught children in an interesting way about the importance of recycling, environmental protection and how to properly dispose packaging waste. Children and their teachers were delighted, so dozens of drawings were sent to our address from children on their own initiative as a sign of gratitude.

We also worked a lot on our professional development. Together with other system operators from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we organized workshop "Ten years of implementation of the Rulebook on the management of packaging waste". In addition to the hosts - the Association of System Operators in FBiH and the FBiH Chamber of Commerce, this workshop was attended by representatives of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism, FBiH Environmental Protection Fund, Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs - Environmental and Market Inspectorate.

Ekopak continued with investing in the development of infrastructure for the collection and preparation for recycling of packaging waste in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Weco-financed the purchase of vehicles with our partners - collectors of packaging waste. Also, we opened the first recycling yard in the Municipality of Novi Grad in Sarajevo.

We also worked on the promotion of the Green Dot throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We organized a specialized training for our employees so that they could be as successful as possible in their work and we learned about effective internal and external communication.

As part of completion "Management of packaging waste in the Western Balkans" project, which was implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia, a final conference was organized in Belgrade in which we participated along with representatives of local communities and their utility companies involved in this project. At the conference, it was pointed out that BiH had an excellent result in the improvement of the infrastructure for the collection of glass packaging wasteas well in implementingour public advocacy campaign.

Also, as part of this project, Ekopak in cooperation with GIZ procured and delivered 190 special waste-bins for the disposal of glass packaging waste for the pilot cities and municipalities, i.e. for the City of Bihać and the municipalities of Novi Travnik, Konjic and Ilidža with the help of its partner utility companies. They ensured the collection and transportation of collected quantities for recycling. A total of 208,000 kg of glass packaging waste was submitted for recycling from these four local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina: 114,000 kg from Novi Travnik, more than 64,000 kg  from Bihać, 19,000 kg Konjic and 11,000 kg from Ilidža. In total 7% more than our project goal.

At the end of 2022, Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism published a new Regulation on the criteria for calculation and method of payment fees for products that become packaging, electrical and electronic wasteafter use.

New challenges are ahead of us and already in the first week of 2023 we started with preparation of our annual report in which we will attach evidence that we have successfully completed the past year and significantly contributed to the development of the packaging waste recycling system, all at the lowest sustainable costs and for the well-being of the entire community.

Until our next newsletter, we wish you a pleasant and successful time ahead.
Your Ekopak