Montenegro, along with many other Balkan countries is becoming a hot summer tourist destination. With beautiful beaches, cheap prices and great local people, it is a new and exciting place to explore.
For recovering economies, tourism is a lucrative industry as it provide jobs and injects funds into local communities. However, for many cities, local infrastructure is not ready for the influx of tourists. Public transport, roads, accomodation and waste management systems are under incredible stress during the summer months. Compounding this is the lack of drinking water which creates more plastic waste that local cities are not ready to deal with.
Budva in Montenegro is becoming known as the party capital of the Balkans, with a range of clubs, bars and restaurants. The local beaches are beautiful, with a great coastline and islands just a 10 minute boat ride away. However, as the local area does not have access to drinking water, plastic bottles are everywhere and straws are still being widely used.
Budva Zero Waste Pop Up Stand
One day, after a day of lounging and reading on the beach, I stumbled across a zero waste pop up stand.
The pop up was about the size of a shipping container and had a few games inside. It was also air conditioned which was a major drawcard!
The young, local employee introduced the concept and shared how people can bring their plastic bottles to collect tokens which can be redeemed for prizes and games. For every 5 PET bottles, you can play fuseball or a massive game of connect 4. If you collect 20 PET bottles you get a cap and for 70 you get a power bank.
The employee said that it is mainly tourists who come in here, but that there is a wider strategy to engage with the local residents. ‘It is important we help people who stay here to understand the impact of plastic on our beaches and the environment.’ he said.
As beaches are critical to the success of tourism in the local region, locals need to change their habits and mindsets. It is also important that travellers become conscious of the impacts they have on the local region, so having a big pop up stand is effective.
Outside were different bins for plastic, glass and aluminium so people can separate their rubbish and get rewarded.
<blockquote class=”instagram-media” data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=”https://www.instagram.com/p/B1V0SfGHnQ7/” data-instgrm-version=”12″ style=” background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% – 2px); width:calc(100% – 2px);”><div style=”padding:16px;”> <a href=”https://www.instagram.com/p/B1V0SfGHnQ7/” style=” background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;” target=”_blank”> <div style=” display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;”> <div style=”background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;”></div> <div style=”display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;”> <div style=” background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;”> View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style=”padding: 12.5% 0;”></div> <div style=”display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;”><div> <div style=”background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);”></div> <div style=”background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;”></div> <div style=”background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);”></div></div><div style=”margin-left: 8px;”> <div style=” background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;”></div> <div style=” width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)”></div></div><div style=”margin-left: auto;”> <div style=” width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);”></div> <div style=” background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);”></div> <div style=” width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);”></div></div></div></a> <p style=” margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;”> <a href=”https://www.instagram.com/p/B1V0SfGHnQ7/” style=” color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;” target=”_blank”>Here we were just wandering along the streets of Budva, Montenegro and we stumbled across a zero waste pop up store! We chatted to this local legend about all things waste. They are trying to spread awareness to locals and tourists about the importance of managing waste. To do this, for every plastic bottle you bring to the pop up stand, they give you points that you can trade in for playing games like connect 4 and fuseball as well as power banks and caps. Such a great idea to start building awareness and to change behaviours of how people manage their waste in the local region. The young legend we spoke to said ‘we need to reduce the amount of plastic we have, but this is a good way for people to learn about the importance of managing waste. Because we can’t drink the tap water, it means a lot of plastic is still being used. We need to keep our beaches clean and this is one way to do it!’ Gotta love the passion of young people! #zerowaste #zerowastebudva #noplastic #cleanbeaches #cleanouroceans #sustainability #planetbinsights #montenegro #budva #beaches #zeroplastic</a></p> <p style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;”>A post shared by <a href=”https://www.instagram.com/planetb_insights/” style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;” target=”_blank”> Laura Baker @ Planet B</a> (@planetb_insights) on <time style=” font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;” datetime=”2019-08-19T09:41:06+00:00″>Aug 19, 2019 at 2:41am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> //www.instagram.com/embed.js
The Budva Zero Waste Initiative
The pop up stand is only one part of the Budva Zero Waste initiative. The director of the NGO Eco Center Budva, Andrea Doljanica, said that “Zero Waste cities, above all, mean a cleaner and healthier environment for the citizens and improve their quality of life.”
The initiative is sponsored by the Coca Cola Foundation and run by NGO EKO Center Budva. They aim to create various activities for both tourists and locals to engage with recycling in new ways.
For Locals
Education
There are a range of education programs for citizens, children of preschool and school age are critical. From what I could gather, they are mainly focusing on young people and helping them to understand the impacts of their consumption. When I went back the next day I saw a group of kids bringing in the plastic bottles they found on the street. “Everyone wants those power banks!” said one employee.
They also use the pop up stand as a place to educate local students with activities every Tuesday and Friday.
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Network of bins and recycling facilities
Up until now Budva’s recycling infrastructure was almost non-existent. This is not uncommon in many cities in the Balkans and in areas of Europe. Greece and Italy are still quite new to recycling, with many of the
According to Vijesti Online, NGO Eco Center Budva, Andrea Doljanica said “We will soon equip the city with 30 special plastic waste bins, in which citizens will be able to bring selectively separated plastic waste from their households throughout the year and thus send it for recycling.”
For Tourists
The pop up stand
The pop up stand, as discussed above is where visitors can find out about zero waste living and how they can protect nature. They can also recycle a range of their
Smart benches
There are a few smart benches which are powered by solar panels and allows tourists and locals alike to charge their phone and access wifi. The one I saw was right on the main boulevard near one of the big beach clubs.
Recycling vs Reducing
This is a great first step by the city of Budva as they acknowledge the impact of locals and tourists on the local environments. Their approach to focus on awareness and education of the topic with locals, especially with young people is important.
However this needs to not just be coupled with a very small waste managment system, it needs to get to the core of the problem. To truly become a zero waste town, they need to work with local businesses to help them transition to zero waste products (reusable straws, glasses, cans or glass drinks etc.) The local government can provide incentives whether it be through a rates discount for businesses who commit to the transition as well as look at ways to pick up recycling of glass at a reduced rate. This will incentivise behaviour change of local businesses.
As the Coca Cola Foundation is behind the initiative, they should also be focusing on not selling plastic bottles in the immediate area.
Further to this, local government could look into creating filter systems for local water to curb plastic water bottle usage.
Thinking of Zero Waste as a System Not an Initiative
The most important thing when discussing zero waste at a local community level is to think of it as a system and not an initiative. This means that understanding the root causes for the plastic waste as well as the local ecosystem need to be addressed.
Budva’s initiative of focusing on awareness and education to change mindsets and behaviours is important to change the system. However this needs to be coupled with policies and infrastructure that allows people to act and behave in a zero waste way. If locals are aware and wanting to act but the infrastructure (recycling bins, drinking water, options when eating out) isn’t there, then the impact will be finite.
Overall
It was so great to see a local government taking steps to reduce their plastic waste through an interesting initiative of awareness and engagement. Hopefully it will translate to local policy that impacts critical infrastructure and businesses. I did not notice any other initiatives like this across the Balkans, so it is great to see a tourist spot taking the lead when it comes to reducing plastic waste.
Planet B Insights 