November the 10th, 2022 - The rather unpopular (initially, anyway) new rules surrounding Zagreb waste disposal came into force on October the 1st. Just how many fines and warnings have been dished out to people failing to respect the new rules here in the capital?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, as of December the 1st this year, there will be no more ''blue and yellow bag'' weeks, and plastic (yellow) removal will increase to once a week, announced the head of Cistoca, Davor Vic. By the end of next year, the new Zagreb waste disposal system should be fully operational across the entire capital city, he said for Vecernji TV.

He expressed his satisfaction with the speed with which the residents of Zagreb accepted the model that came into effect on the first day of October. In the first month of the new rules surrounding Zagreb waste disposal, the capital's residents produced 27 percent less mixed municipal waste, increased the separation of bio-waste by 30 percent, while plastic is 40 percent heavier in terms of weight and even more by volume.

"Even on the ground, it can be seen that there is less mixed waste in general, so the prerequisites have been created for us to shift our capacities to recyclable waste," Vic said.

For this reason, for 90,000 service users living in family homes, the removal of mixed waste will be gradually abolished from twice to just once a week. This was introduced for about 60,000 houses by Monday, and it will cover the rest as well before end of the month.

"In family houses, their charged volume is sufficient for removal once a week. But in multi-apartment buildings, where the tanks are outside, we'll reduce the removal of such waste gradually,'' he explained.

Paper, glass and especially plastic will be picked up more often after December the 1st this year. "We have about 100 critical locations from which we collect waste every night because the yellow containers are spilling things out there. In cooperation with communal wardens, we also started issuing fines, which turned out to have an effect,'' said Vic.

This can best be seen in the very centre of the city, where, despite the initial skepticism, the new model for Zagreb waste disposal worked very quickly because people recognised the advantage of not having bins lift out on the pavements. In the first month of its implementation, not many fines were issued or collected, he revealed.

"Over the past few weeks, Cistoca employees stuck warnings or thank you notes on the bins and as such let it be known that we're actually monitoring what bin users are doing. Most of the fines were written for non-compliance with communal rules, which is nothing new. It has always been stipulated that waste can't just be dumped anywhere. We immediately punish people for doing that, and after that we'll start checking what is being thrown in the rubbish containers. The punishments aren't symbolic or excessive, but they're definitely sufficient for people to correct themselves and to understand that we're doing all this for the common good," Vic said.

The focus is on the centre of Zagreb, he added, because it is quite a specific case. As in any city, the highest volume of people stay and pass through there and it is the most touristic.

A big problem, Vic added, is being caused directly by unscrupulous owners of catering and hospitality establishments who use other people's rubbish containers for their own waste.

"We're dealing with that with the municipal police, because they have to deal with their packaging in their own arrangement with Cistoca or with another company. We're in charge of taking away their municipal waste," he said. He also commented on the complaints of residents from Novi Zagreb about the unbearable stench and bad readings at the Zagreb 3 air quality measuring station.

"We haven't yet come across any parameter according to which this could be related to what we're doing at the Jakusevac landfill, because nothing has changed in our business except that we have less mixed waste. It is "business as usual" with us,'' Vic said. As a possible source of the stench, many are pointing the finger at the Zrinjevac compost plant, where biowaste from households is currently processed.

"We have impurities in bio-waste, but we separate it all first and take it to the landfill in the form of mixed waste. There's more biowaste than there was before, but it is still within the planned capacity of Zrinjevac. We constantly have inspections due to reports, but the more they come, the more they determine that we're working according to the permits and rules of the profession," emphasised Vic.

Project documentation for the biogas plant and composting plant in Novska is now also being prepared, sources of financing are being sought, and proper solutions are expected soon. Applications for landfills are still ongoing, two have been built so far, and three are in the process of being constructed.

For more, make sure to keep up with our dedicated news section.

June the 29th, 2022 - Respected architect Igor Ekstajn has come up with an innovative idea with which we might solve the City of Zagreb's continuing issues with waste removal and disposal - all based on an American city.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, architect Igor Ekstajn recently spoke about the continuing waste problems being faced by the the City of Zagreb during an episode of N1 Newsnight. He commented on how the problem of waste disposal in Zagreb could be solved based on the American city of Boston's model.

“The most elegant solution is for us not to simply let this rubbish pile up in public spaces: many of the City of Zagreb's buildings have been designed to have waste disposal rooms on the ground floor (in the basement). Family houses have gardens attached to them where rubbish containers can be stored. The principle is that this rubbish is then sorted and separated on the plot of a residential building or house, and then is collected at a certain time when Cistoca (the communal service company responsible for waste removal) will come and pick up the rubbish to take it away, I think that is the most elegant way to deal with this. That way, there's no presence of these containers and as such, rubbish, in the city's public spaces,'' architect Igor Ekstajn explained.

The local Zagreb Government has postponed the implementation of a new waste separation model, and Ekstajn commented that waste collection is regulated in Boston.

“In Boston, buildings have rooms on the ground floor/basement where the rubbish is separated. The manager of the building is obliged to take the containers out onto the street once a week and then the binmen come and pick up the containers,'' said the architect.

He also commented on the possible construction of social housing in the City of Zagreb, stating that these residential buildings should not simply be built in the cheapest locations possible.

"This should be thought of as point construction in several different locations and thus the stigmatisation of people living in such apartments will be gradually eliminated. Secondly, the city will have a more even and better population structure,'' the architect explained, adding that Gredelj should be considered as a space with great potential.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 26 March, 2021 - A HRK 12.5 million EU grant agreement for the construction of a composting plant in the southern town of Metković was signed on Friday by Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić and the director of the local Čistoća waste management company, Tomislav Jakić.

The project, which will be implemented as part of the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020, is worth more than HRK 24 million, of which 50% is co-financed by the EU.

Ćorić said that the composting plant would serve Metković as well as Opuzen and neighbouring communities.

The plant's annual capacity is 5,000 tonnes and it guarantees that biodegradable waste in the River Neretva valley will be managed in the best way possible, said the minister.

Dubrovnik-Neretva County head Nikola Dobroslavić said that Metković was the most advanced local government unit in terms of waste management.

For more about ecology in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

Split Riva, it is always next to immaculate, a beautiful sight and first impression for visiting tourists… but have you ever wondered how it transforms from dusk til dawn?