July the 9th, 2021 - Each and every Croatian resident disposes of a shocking amount of waste every single year, with each person being responsible for approximately 414 kilograms of rubbish on an annual basis.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, back in pandemic-dominated 2020, a massive 1,680,428 tonnes of municipal waste were generated, ie 414 kilograms per capita, according to the preliminary review of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development on municipal waste in the Republic of Croatia for 2020, which contains information on generated waste and separate collection at the national level.
This is a decrease of 7 percent when compared to the total amount of municipal waste from pre-pandemic 2019. Significant reductions in quantities were recorded for mixed municipal waste and packaging waste. 686,475 tonnes of municipal waste were collected separately, and the rate of separate collection was 41 percent, which is an increase of 4 percent when compared to 2019. The Ministry pointed out that this is the result of significant investments in infrastructure for waste separation and the general education of the population on such matters.
From back in 2016 until today, through two open calls/invitations from within the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme, 213 projects for Croatian recycling yards have been approved, co-financed in the amount of 85 percent with European Union funds, and the total allocated funds for this amount to a staggering 465 million kuna.
More than 3 million Croatian residents were covered through 91 projects for the implementation of educational and information activities, with 53.6 million kuna in grants being officially approved for these projects. 315 million kuna in non-refundable EU funds were invested in the primary waste selection, which makes up 85 percent of the investment for the procurement of 1,230,695 pieces of bins and containers for separate waste collection for 407 local self-government units.
In addition, the construction of sorting plants, composting plants, the procurement of vehicles for separate waste collection and money for dealing with landfills were all also co-financed. All this directly contributes to the achievement of the goals of increasing the rate of separate collection and recycling of waste and reducing landfills. It is crucial that everyone, from each Croatian resident through to local self-government units to the national level, continue to work every day to establish a waste management system in order to continue this positive trend and achieve good results based on developing a circular economy and reducing environmental pressure.
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