The second working meeting of the Regional Working Group on Solid Waste Management “Business cases development for improved waste collection and valorisation” took place in Skopje, Macedonia, on 6 December 2018.

Around 20 participants representing Waste Management Associations, Associations of Public Utility Companies, National institutions and ministries, GIZ projects and Local Government Associations, members of NALAS, took part in the meeting, that had the following objectives:

• To present and exchange on the progress and challenges in the piloting process in each municipality/public utility company;
• To introduce and discuss about the monitoring methodology of the implemented process;
• To discuss on the sustainability and formalisation of the Regional Working Group
• To discuss the utilisation of the existing capacities of the Working Group members for dissemination of the business cases.

The working meeting was organised in two blocks. The first one focused on the progress of the pilot process and monitoring, while the second one on the sustainability and formalisation of the Regional Working Group on SWM and dissemination of the business cases.

In the first block, presented was the progress of piloting the business process in the municipalities and the methodology for monitoring, focused on: home Composting, cost centres and tariffs, route optimization and extension of services, customer base and professional development (health and safety), along with the first results of monitoring three processes: primary separation, briquetting and central composting. In small groups, participants discussed the piloting progress and monitoring of the business process, specifically addressing overcoming the obstacles in the piloting of the business process and methodological approach for monitoring the business cases.  

The second block was related to sustainability and formalisation of the Regional Working Group on Solid Waste Management and dissemination of the business cases. In small groups, participants discussed the potentials of the Regional Working Groups’ members for sustainability of the Working Group, the procedure for formalisation of the Regional Working Group and Working Group members’ channels for dissemination of business cases.