The ceremony took place at the Government Palace in the presence of the Minister of the Environment, Goran Trivan, the Italian Ambassador Carlo Lo Cascio and Catia Bastioli, CEO of Novamont.
Under the terms of the five-year agreement, in the first phase of collaboration, Novamont will be involved in supporting the design of a model for the separate collection of urban and agricultural waste, subsequently implementing a pilot project of the model in one or more Serbian cities and providing consultancy on the circular bio-economy to the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment.
Later on, the collaboration may be extended to industrial investments by Novamont, either alone or in public or private partnerships, whether international or local, and/or by companies in the Novamont supply chain.
The agreement is part of efforts being made by the Republic of Serbia since their EU accession procedure commenced designed to harmonise their environmental protection legislation with European legislation.
The main theme is that of new models of agro-industrial development and environmental protection.
“Thanks to its pioneering activity in the bioeconomy, Novamont is a true demonstrator of the possibility that entire application sectors may be redesigned from bioplastics and biochemicals. Our collaboration with Serbia is a further step towards the multiplication of sustainable models and the creation of interconnected and innovative infrastructures for the treatment of organic carbon and the transformation of waste into new products,” declared Catia Bastioli, Novamont CEO.
Novamont
Novamont is one of the world-leading groups in the development and production of bio-based and biodegradable bioplastics through the integration of chemistry, agriculture and the environment.
The main fields of application of the company’s biochemicals are packaging, separate organic waste collection, retail purchasing, disposable tableware, farming, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The firm produced biodegradable tableware for the 2012 Olympic Games, was chosen by Co-op UK as the sole supplier of compostable shoppers and has already worked with local councils (including some London boroughs) engaged in the separate collection of bio-waste.
Other than the UK, Novamont has commercial offices in Germany, France and the United States and operates through its own distributors in 25 countries.
The company has its headquarters in Novara (near Milan), a portfolio of 1,800 patents, 600 employees in four production sites and two research centres in Italy and a global turnover of €238M (2018).
Research & Development accounts for 5% of its revenues and 20% of its workforce. Materials that can fully biodegrade in soil and water have been developed for those applications with a high risk of dispersion in the environment.
Novamont is a Core Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative aimed at rethinking plastics packaging systems globally.
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