Soon the technical government should discuss the Waste Management Plan, recently completed
The Environment Protection Ministry is finalising the Plan and although the government is only performing urgent tasks, the Ministry explained there is a possibility of adoption as this will fulfil commitments to EU, due by the end of 2014, Index.hr reported on July 13, 2016.
Due to this, Croatia cannot use funds for environmental projects available in the amount of 475 million Euro. Significant changes have been made by Minister Dobronić: reduction of waste management centres capacity, not a good choice for the Istria and Primorsko-Goranska counties who have already built their centres, questioning their profitability.
Counties previously supported the plan to build 13 centres with a total capacity of 1.3 million tonnes of waste per year, the equivalent of current Croatian national annual waste. However, this is mixed waste and by EU legislation by 2020 we must recycle 50% of paper, metal, glass, plastics, meaning the amount of waste coming to management centres would be halved.
This would mean the centres would not fill capacity and they need 80% to be profitable. An option is importing waste from other countries. Furthermore, Minister Dobronić has pointed out the necessity to begin recycling on the doorstep, while the national Plan calls for only 25% of mixed waste arriving to management centres.
Dušan Šćulac, director of the Ekoplus company managing a county waste management centre said he believes the amounts of waste will continue to grow with years. “There is no fear of a lack of waste, I even believe we will lack capacity as we will create more garbage,” Šćulac said adding he feels the major downfall of Dobronić’s plan is that it was planned in laboratory conditions, not in the field.
