The city of Novi Pazar has been a textile center for several decades, with around 80 manufacturers of textile products operating on its territory, mainly producing denim. According to textile industry-related data, 1.5% of the total annual production is textile waste, which amounts to about 60 tons of this waste. Currently, clothing manufacturers are obliged to hand over textile waste to authorized operators and pay a fee for the collection thereof. Because of this, the real amounts of this waste are often not reported, and a considerable part ends up in a landfill or is burned. The problem of burning textile waste and air pollution is a long-standing problem in the city, and due to the increase in energy prices, many smaller textile workshops and households are resorting to burning textile waste in their own furnaces.
Proper handling of textile waste – primary selection – would lead to controlled waste management and separation at the source. Collection, transport, and temporary storage of textile waste by the operator of PUC “Gradska čistoća” would reduce the creation of illegal dumpsites and prevent its inadequate disposal or combustion. In order to motivate companies to hand over all quantities of textile waste, an agreement was made with the PUC on the free collection of textile waste from all companies in the city territory for a period of two years. An agreement was also made with a waste operator that will take over all the collected textile waste as a solution in the first phase, while representatives of the city will continue to work on finding further new solutions for the use of this waste at the local level. The support provided amounts to 70,000 US $.