Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Jablanica municipality will deploy drones equipped with artificial intelligence cameras to detect illegal waste dumps as part of a €1.13mn cross-border project aimed at improving waste management around tourist lakes.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) reports that around 25% of all waste disposed of in Bosnia ends up in illegal dump sites, of which there are more than 1,400 illegal waste disposal sites, according to the UNDP.

The CIRCULARlakes project, funded mainly by the European Union through the INTERREG VI-A IPA Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina-Montenegro programme, will also introduce smart bins, composters and biowaste shredders, the municipality said.

Jablanica has secured BAM793,150 (€405,531), including BAM674,711 in EU funding, for activities in the municipality. The project runs until July 2028.

The initiative covers Jablanica Lake, Croatia’s Baćina Lakes and Montenegro’s Lake Skadar and aims to develop what organisers describe as an AI-supported circular economy model for areas exposed to intensive tourism.

It will include digital tools to optimise routes for municipal waste collection vehicles, while an application and gamification platform will be developed for residents and tourists.

The project also aims to increase local processing of organic waste, with a target of at least 50% being composted locally once the proposed waste-management model is adopted by municipalities and utility companies.

“The main goal of the project is the development and implementation of a smart, locally based and artificial intelligence-supported circular economy model,” the municipality said.

Other partners include Croatia’s City of Ploče, Montenegro’s capital Cetinje, Zero Waste Montenegro and Mostar-based LINK Entrepreneurial Center, which is leading the project.

The EU is providing €963,425.70, or 85% of the project’s total cost, with the remainder covered by the participating organisations.