A grassroots recycling initiative is converting discarded cigarette butts into meaningful employment for Serbians with intellectual disabilities. From Storyteller.
As you enter the premises of the organization Nasa Kuca in the Mirijevo neighborhood of Belgrade, you are greeted by a lively working atmosphere. About 20 people in a large room patiently and precisely separate cigarette packs into parts – separating cellophane, cardboard, and aluminum foil.
Everyone knows their task, but between the lines the rhythm of togetherness echoes: the occasional comment, a smile, an agreement for a break. Because when the clock strikes noon, you know – it’s time for coffee, rest, and the obligatory socializing with music from YouTube.
“I like working with cigarette packs the most,” says Dusan, not looking up from his work. Not only for the rhythm and routine, but also for the feeling of usefulness.
“Next year I’ll be living alone,” he says proudly and promises to make us coffee then if we come to visit.
Because here, at Nasa Kuca, a support association for people with developmental disabilities, cigarette packages are not waste. Here they are the beginning of something new – both materially and in life.
“Hello, welcome!” says one of the volunteers. “I’m here to help boys and girls with their daily activities, with what they need during work.”
His role is not formal, but it is certainly crucial – everyone recognizes him in the corridor, greets him, asks for help, or just smiles. “You’ve already seen it – they open the bundles, separate them, shred them, and then make paper from them. We will see that now,” he says, pointing to a process that is both routine and revolutionary.
Because right there, in daily movements and careful work, Nasa Kuca not only solves the problem of waste – but it also connects the circular economy with social justice and shows that the green transition does not have to be elite.
Waste and People on the Margins
In Serbia, over two million tons of general waste is generated annually, ending up in unsanitary landfills, while most local communities still do not have effective systems for separation, processing, and reuse. Waste is most often dumped or burned – without a plan, a local strategy, or insight into who bears the consequences.
And the consequences are greatest precisely where people and problems are least visible. Among those who are regularly ignored by the system are people with intellectual and mental disabilities – whether they live in the city outskirts, small communities, or institutional settings. Rarely employed, even less involved in green policies, they are invisible in everyday debates about transition and waste.
According to 2021 research conducted by the Mental Disability Rights Initiative of Serbia, most people with mental disabilities in Serbia have never been employed, and those who have most often work in protected forms of employment. The support system for inclusion in the open labor market is almost non-existent, and the current legal framework does not recognize the specific needs of people with intellectual disabilities.
Nasa Kuca in Mirijevo delivers at least a partial answer to this problem. There, people with developmental disabilities earn money every day by hand-making paper from cigarette packs, gain self-confidence, and become a visible part of the community.
This workshop does not carry out ordinary recycling, but upcycling – a process that increases the value of waste. Every piece of paper produced has both environmental and social significance: smaller carbon footprint, fewer landfills, and more dignity.
Where Does the Solution Begin?
The story of Nasa Kuca does not begin with upcycling cigarette packs, but much earlier – from the need to create a dignified place for people with developmental disabilities to work outside the sterile framework of institutional care.
“In the beginning, the idea was to provide innovative services that follow their real needs and not resemble what the system already offers – because there is almost none of it, or it is of very poor quality,” says Anica Spasov, the founder and president of Nasa Kuca.
The association was founded in 2007, based on the belief that work is the foundation of human dignity and the fastest way to inclusion. “We realized that the community accepts them the fastest if it sees them as equals – as someone who creates something,” Spasov says.
From that belief came various workshops and social innovations – from making pralines and microbeads to the production of handmade paper. That idea developed especially when the association tried to respond to two needs at the same time: engaging people it supports in meaningful work and solving the problem of waste in the community.
This is how a workshop was created where hardworking hands recycle used cigarette packs into high-quality paper – a combination of Japanese technique and local sustainability. Through that paper, as Spasov says, the workers are no longer invisible – they become recognized through the value of what they create.
From a Cigarette Packet to Paper
The idea to make handmade paper from cigarette packs did not originate in a laboratory, but from everyday observation and necessity. Spasov has long been looking for activities that are not only therapeutic, but also meaningfully useful and economically viable.
When she discovered that cigarette packs are layered – cardboard, covered with aluminum foil and cellophane – she recognized the potential for learning, working, and recycling. With the support of experts and many attempts, they developed their own papermaking process.
What further distinguishes this initiative is its ecological dimension. Unlike industrial recycling, which often consumes huge amounts of water and energy, manual papermaking in Nasa Kuca is a low-carbon alternative.
“It penetrates deeply into the preservation of the environment, because paper processing, even recycling, if it is industrial, can be a greater consumer of energy and water than the production of new paper itself,” says Spasov. “But manual production [reduces] consumption of both electricity and water. The consumption is minimal, which means that we significantly reduce the carbon footprint.”
In addition to saving paper packs from landfills and burning – which would further increase emissions – the association’s participants directly contribute to the circular economy and the fight against climate change through this practice.
Production begins with manual separation – people separate cardboard from foil and cellophane. Then comes the shredding, soaking, and blending of the cardboard into a pulp, which is then shaped into frames, squeezed, dried, and ironed by hand. What is created in Nasa Kuca does not end up in drawers. The paper is used in art, design, and marketing – for promotional materials, art prints, and even experimental exhibitions.
The question of the raw material – how to get enough packets – was quickly solved by the community itself. After calls on social networks, packages started arriving from all over Serbia: from individuals, institutions, and small businesses. Today, the suppliers of this microsystem are precisely those who share its vision.
Today, Nasa Kuca also has its own franchise – a knowledge transfer program to other organizations that want to start similar paper-making workshops.
“Our methodology is open – we do not hide knowledge,” Spasov says. “Our goal is that as many places as possible have their own small, local facilities where people recycle and create, regardless of disability or social status.”
So far, several organizations have adopted Nasa Kuca’s model: in Kragujevac, Leskovac, Novi Pazar, Zajecar, Arandjelovac, Priboj, Feketic, and Novi Sad.
The production of recycled paper in Nasa Kuca is designed to match the rhythm and capacities of those who use its services – without pressure, in an atmosphere of dignified work.
“We can produce up to a hundred A3 sheets per day, easily, without pressure. That’s their capacity, their concentration, and capabilities – we don’t go beyond that,” says Spasov.
The density of the paper varies. It is made in thicknesses of 190 to 300 grams per square meter. Calculations show that one kilogram of recycled paper requires more than 100 used cigarette packs. From that kilogram, depending on the thickness, you can get 25 to 30 sheets.
“Every day, working in one shift, we process four to five kilograms of packages,” Spasov says.
According to a technical analysis prepared by the Serbia expert team of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), it is estimated that the annual recycling of 3.5 tons of paper can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by about 535 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.
Technological improvements are predicted to increase the volume of production to 7 tons per year, while, with the opening of new similar centers throughout Serbia, the total capacity could reach up to 40 tons of recycled packs per year. Fifteen such centers could together recycle as much as 450 tons of waste paper annually.
An additional contribution to the reduction of emissions comes from the working method itself. Unlike industrial recycling, manual paper production almost completely eliminates the consumption of electricity and water. At the same time, it prevents more than one ton of packaging waste that’s difficult to decompose from ending up in a landfill or being burned per year, significantly reducing the carbon footprint in the local community.
When Donors Recognize Real Change
The initiative of Nasa Kuca did not go unnoticed by donor organizations that support sustainable practices in Serbia. UDNP Serbia, through one of its most complex calls for projects involved with the circular economy, provided financial and technical support to this model, which simultaneously encourages the green transition and social inclusion.
“We really consider it important to connect social responsibility and awareness of the inclusion of marginalized groups with the encouragement of the green transition,” says Ana Mitic-Radulovic, a circular economy analyst at UNDP in Serbia. “That is why in the last three years, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, we have announced as many as 12 public calls in the circular economy area alone, among which this one, through which Nasa Kuca was also supported, was the most demanding.”
Within each project that UNDP supports, the impact on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is also monitored. As Mitic-Radulovic says, every pilot – no matter how small – involves basic calculations that serve as a guide: some projects have a smaller, some a significantly larger potential impact.
This is precisely why a diverse portfolio of initiatives is chosen – so that the collective effects can contribute to the achievement of long-term sustainability indicators, which are evaluated not only during the duration of the support, but also within the life cycle of the solution, which can run for up to 20 years.
“We don’t expect every project to change the waste management system – nor would that be realistic. Our task is to motivate change, to reveal obstacles and show what is possible,” Mitic-Radulovic says. “When innovation is enough, combined with the pressure of the wider social and economic environment, small innovations can encourage much wider changes in the way the system works.”
Through such micro-initiatives, the UNDP team identified and contributed to specific regulatory changes. For example, in the early stages of the program, many ideas for recycling or reusing waste could not be implemented because academic institutions had to have a waste management permit, even for basic testing. In dialogue with decision-makers and the relevant ministry, an amendment to the law on waste management was passed so that scientific testing could be done without permits through temporary, simplified administrative procedures.
Another important change related to the status of waste after treatment. Materials such as plastic, ash, granulate, or rubber could not be returned to the market because they were not recognized in the rules governing when a material is no longer considered as waste. Until then, only metal and glass had this possibility. Thanks to analysis and experience from the field, through testing innovations in practice, new solutions found their place in the legislative framework.
“Our goal is not to improve the entire waste management system, but to create conditions so that innovative solutions can be tested, applied in reality, raised to a higher level, and applied on a larger scale,” says Mitic-Radulovic. “Through the testing of concrete ideas, we clearly see what needs to be changed in the legal framework, so that innovations systematically become a regular practice, and not an exception.”
The Limits of One Organization
Despite the successful work model, Nasa Kuca faces deep-rooted obstacles every day – from the distrust of others in the nearby community and the rigid employment system to outdated educational and social practices.
“First of all, we have a big challenge of misunderstanding and non-acceptance of the community, even by the parents themselves. Parents very often claim their children cannot do something, that it is better for them to be only recipients of services, and not active participants in life,” says Spasov. The lack of support from families affects the wider community as well as the workers themselves, discouraging them from recognizing their own abilities.
The problem is further complicated at the level of institutions and decision-makers, who rarely understand flexible employment models and often see employment exclusively through the prism of eight-hour working days. “Our laws are very rigid. Even when they change, we keep the old practices, and professionals often don’t want to get out of the safe, medical model of thinking,” says Spasov.
The education system doesn’t offer solutions either. According to Spasov, it is “more protection for educators than support for a child who learns.” Individual educational plans are rarely implemented for the benefit of the child, and after a child leaves school the institutions cease to be interested.
“The state no longer cares about these people – as if they don’t exist,” Spasov says. The result is a system in which people with developmental disabilities are left to fend for themselves, without continuity in support and without serious employment and empowerment policies.
There is certainly a lack of institutional support and the absence of a strategy that recognizes small, local practices as part of a wider transition towards a greener and fairer society. There is a strategy, but not a way for models like this to enter it.
Between Paper and Practice
At first glance, the Serbian legislative framework seems comprehensive. The Circular Economy Roadmap was adopted in 2020 and the Circular Economy Development Program was fully implemented between 2022 and 2025. Several sectoral documents – from the waste management strategy and the national climate change adaptation plan to the “smart specialization strategy” and the “eco-design rulebook” – have already been formally transferred to Serbian legislation.
Most European Union directives in the fields of environmental protection, industry, and energy have already been formally transposed into Serbian legislation.
“The documents exist, but for you it’s still a dead letter,” says Dr. Aleksandar Jovovic, an expert in this field from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. He says that the first national waste management plan was adopted back in 2003, but that even 20 years later, Serbia does not have a functional infrastructure for primary waste separation in households – which is a basic prerequisite for any serious recycling.
“When you have the political will to not allow unprocessed waste to end up in a landfill, you just have to implement your own law, that’s the key,” Jovovic says. “You actually start the entire waste management industry at that moment.
“In a country where more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, which are at the level of 50-60 million tons, come from energy, the effects of micro-initiatives in numbers are negligible, but that does not mean that they are not important,” he adds.
In that vacuum between “paper and practice,” small initiatives like Nasa Kuca survive – but without systemic support. The Law on Social Entrepreneurship to some extent opens up space for their activities but does not recognize the specific models of production and employment that such workshops apply.
There are no specific mechanisms such as tax breaks, quotas in public procurement, or guaranteed purchase of products or priority in access to funds that would enable the sustainable development of micro-enterprises around the circular economy.
“The European Green Deal is not based on large companies, but on small and medium-sized enterprises that need to be systemically connected,” says Jovovic. “In our country, unfortunately, small producers are still expected to independently overcome logistical and financial barriers.”
For now, instead of all that, small initiatives are emerging as isolated examples of good practice. Although such models are exactly what the European framework means by a just green transition, in Serbia they remain left to projects, donor luck, and the enthusiasm of individuals.
“You have the law, you have the strategy, you have the national fund for science, but the connection between the pilot and the system is lacking,” Jovovic says. “And that’s why small ones like Nasa Kuca remain an inspiration – but they aren’t becoming the rule.”
How the Community Uses Micro-Initiatives
Initiatives such as Nasa Kuca in practice remain outside the framework of local waste management plans, not because of a lack of results, but because of systemic inertia. Igor Jezdimirovic, president of the Association of Environmental Protection Engineers, points out that the obstacles are mainly of a technical and economic nature.
“The main obstacle that local initiatives for the recycling of specific waste have is to get the necessary raw materials in an economically acceptable way and to recycle them with minimal costs and find a market for their products at a price that the market can and will pay,” Jezdimirovic says.
Workshops for recycling cigarette packs and making paper accessories, such as Nasa Kuca in Belgrade or Svetionik u Plavom in Novi Sad, are excellent examples of social enterprises that synergistically combine recycling and employment of people from vulnerable groups.
“Unfortunately, these initiatives and their contribution to the community are often not sufficiently recognized by local decision-makers,” Jezdimirovic says.
Jezdimirovic points out that waste management plans usually do not even recognize specific flows such as cigarette packs – which are not defined as a separate flow in the law on waste management. Nevertheless, there are good practices in the field, and to formally enter the plans, the initiatives themselves must actively participate in public debates and advocate their position, Jezdimirovic says.
When it comes to the specific contribution of such small-scale projects to the reduction of waste and carbon emissions, Jezdimirovic says that technically it can be calculated, but in numerical terms their contribution is small. However, its significance lies in its symbolism and social effect.
“As social enterprises that employ people from vulnerable groups and at the same time process waste into something useful, such initiatives have far more importance for the community than the statistics alone show,” he says.
When asked whether such a model can become a systemic solution, his answer is cautiously pessimistic.
“In order for a model to be implemented systematically, its limits and limitations must be clearly known, as well as the optimum that needs to be achieved in order for it to be successful and justified,” says Jezdimirovic. “Here, special emphasis must be placed on the benefit to the local community, which is primarily reflected in the engagement of people from vulnerable groups, but also the potential that such initiatives have for the development of cooperation with socially responsible companies.
“Unfortunately, in Serbia, decision-makers are not able to solve much larger problems with a much greater impact on the environment in the area of waste management, and unfortunately, I am not optimistic that they can understand such specific initiatives and their advantages, but it is up to us how we choose.”
Vladimira Dorcova Valtnerova is the owner and editor-in-chief of Storyteller.rs, where this article originally appeared in Serbian. Republished by permission.
The article was translated by the Association for International Affairs in Prague.
