World Environment Day (WED) was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. WED is hosted every year by a different city and commemorated with an international exposition through the week of June 5. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), also created in 1972, uses WED to stimulate awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and public action. The host for World Environment Day 2008 was New Zealand, with the main international celebrations scheduled for Wellington. The slogan for 2008 was "CO2, Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy." New Zealand was one of the first countries to pledge to achieve carbon neutrality, and will also focus on forest management as a tool for reducing greenhouse gases.

NALAS Task Force on Solid Waste Management met in Sarajevo, on April 10-11 2008. The meeting was hosted by the Bosnian Association of Towns and Municipalities and its purpose was to review current results of the task force and to develop new project proposals. Based on the Action Plan and list of problems, the task force members agreed on the priorities to be discussed in the following period, developed project ideas and agreed to form teams of 3-4 experts per topic to develop full project proposals.

The fourth NALAS Solid Waste Management Task Force meeting took place in Belgrade on 5 March 2007. Mr. Kelmend Zajazi, the newly elected NALAS executive director, stressed out the importance of having technical experts in any task force, since task forces are seen as a crucial corner stone of the NALAS Action Plan. Mr. Siegfried Brenke, GTZ project “Modernization of Municipal Services” said that this TF is a pilot NALAS TF, and the experience of SWMTF work, both good and bad, should be used as a basis for structuring future NALAS task forces to be established in 2007. Ms. Anđelka Mihalov SWMTF Coordinating Expert has started first session of the meeting presenting activities, results and problems that TF was facing during its work in 2006.

The third meeting of the NALAS Solid Waste Management Task Force was organized in Bonn. It was agreed, among other things, that all participating experts (both legislative and recycling) are to make an action proposal based on their presentations so far, and on their ideas for further work as prioritized by their respective associations.

In accordance with the decisions of the NALAS Executive Bureau on 07 December 2005 in Sinaia, Romania the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities has, with the support from the GTZ project “Modernization of Municipal Services”, organized the second meeting of the Thematic Task Force for municipal Waste Management. Most of the countries appointed an associated expert to the group, although the process of gathering members of the Task Force will continue and strive to include all NALAS member associations since some still have not appointed the associated expert. For this meeting the TF was broadened with a number of recycling experts including this topic into its work schedule.

In accordance with the decisions of the NALAS Executive Bureau on 07 December 2005 in Romania, the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities has organized the first meeting of the Thematic Task Force for municipal Waste Management. The meeting was held in the association’s premises in Belgrade on the 03rd of July. The meeting was an excellent first step and has established a solid group of experts which will provide a base of knowledge and a valuable resource to the NALAS network with regards to improving municipal services in the local governments which are within the NALAS member associations.

The EBRD is lending €5 million to the Duboko Waste Management Company to build a regional solid waste landfill that will serve more than 300,000 people in nine municipalities across central and western Serbia. These project will support Serbia's national strategy of creating new regional landfills, improving solid waste collection facilities and helping to close down illegal landfills that do not comply with EU standards. The loan will specifically finance the new landfill with waste collection points, transportation trucks, and waste separation facilities used for recycling and composting.

This project focuses on the modernization of communal and local public utility services. Local governments, being responsible for the delivery of public utility services, need to find the most effective methods for the management and organization of these services. The perspective of Serbia's accession to the European Union promotes the need for projects focusing on training, consulting and institutional development. Here are the documents (in Serbian language) produced by the project.