ZAGREB, January 29, 2018 - The head of the Civil-Liberal Alliance (GLAS) and Croatian Pensioners' Party (HSU) group in the Zagreb City Assembly, Anka Mrak-Taritaš, said on Monday that Zagreb was "absolutely unprepared" for waste sorting and that eventually citizens would be the ones to foot the bill.
"The city is absolutely not ready, the mayor has no idea what to do with waste, the relevant city services have no idea either," Mrak-Taritaš said at a news conference ahead of a session of the City Assembly scheduled for Tuesday, at which its members are to decide, at Mayor Milan Bandić's proposal, on ways to provide the public service of collecting mixed waste and biodegradable waste.
Mrak-Taritaš said that the city was not ready for waste sorting and that its residents would eventually not be charged for the actual quantity of waste they generate but for the volume they would report and the number of pickups by trash removal companies. "Someone will have to pay for that, the Čistoća city sanitation company will eventually start generating losses and it will have to be paid for from the city budget. One can also expect higher trash removal bills," she said.
Mrak-Taritaš wondered about containers to be used for waste sorting, whether they would have to be locked, when citizens would be given bags for biodegradable waste, how much they would be charged for trash removal, which trucks would be used for that purpose, and what would happen with waste once it is taken away. She also underlined the importance about educating citizens about bio-waste, municipal bio-waste and waste sorting.
A regulation on waste management, which was to have gone into force on 1 November 2017, takes effect on February 1. The regulation, adopted by the government in May last year, is designed to ensure the establishment of a system of waste collection in all local government units that will reduce the quantity of mixed municipal waste that is disposed of, and ensure waste sorting and recycling. By 2020, Croatia needs to ensure separate collection and recycling of 50 percent of certain types of waste. This rate stood at 24% in mid-2017.
The "pay-as-you-throw" (PAYT) regulation for household waste, adopted by the government in late May 2017, envisages compulsory waste taxes in all local government units, and under the PAYT, users are charged a rate based on how much waste they submit for collection to the municipality or local authority.
Croatia is also introducing stimulation fees to reward people for efforts in the field of waste selection and recycling.
The adoption of the regulation is one of the ex ante conditions for the absorption of funds from the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion for the 2014-2020 period and 475 million euro is available for financing the waste management sector.
In early January 2017, Croatia adopted a new waste management plan for the period from 2016 to 2022 embracing the principles of a circular economy.
