The company “Ekomir” from Prijedor was founded in 2013 and deals with collecting, sorting and processing packaging and packaging waste to the end buyer. For 18 years in the area of Prijedor, but also the entire region, they have been collecting and processing packaging waste of various types, thus contributing to the protection of the environment and at the same time providing income for ten employees.

“In previous years, we have created our own collection network in our local community. In the places where packaging waste is generated, we have installed special cages in which packaging cardboard and packaging foil (LD PE foil) are stored. We take over other packaging waste, such as archive paper, from certain institutions under an agreement or contract, while we take over and buy PET packaging from individuals, and partly from the Romany population” says Ostoja Kojić, director of the company.

The potential of the company, its importance for environmental protection and, in particular, for the economic empowerment of vulnerable populations such as Romany, was also recognized by the Challenge Fund, which supported their project "Plastic into processing, not into nature" with a grant.

“The total value of the investment is 47.949,13 BAM, of which half of the funds are a grant from the C2C fund and the remaining 50% is our own participation. The project included the procurement of a plastic processing regranulator and a foil crusher, thus completing and accelerating the processing process and expanding the network of business partners. We also hired and trained new employees. A number of leaflets "Plastics into processing, and not into nature" were also distributed after which the amount of purchased plastic increased significantly," explains Kojić.

Last year, burdened by the crisis due to the COVID 19 pandemic, brought new challenges to this company. The price of raw materials dropped drastically, which jeopardized the business, but they did not lay off workers.

It currently has 10 employees. Its future business ambitions are to expand its own collection network, to include other packaging waste materials in the collection and processing process that would be environmentally and economically viable, which will result in increased business revenues and employment of new workers, as well as environmental and social well-being for our entire society.