ZAGREB, 17 Dec 2021  - The Zero Waste Europe network has published new best sustainable waste management practices in Europe, which include those in the northern Croatian town of Prelog and 11 neighbouring municipalities, the Green Action NGO said on Friday.

"Croatian towns and municipalities that are part of the European network have continued advancing their waste management systems, achieving new successes. In terms of their results, they are a decade ahead of the goals set in July by the new law put forward by the unambitious Economy and Sustainable Development Ministry," said Marko Košak of the Green Action.

Prelog, the first Croatian town to adopt a zero waste strategy, and 11 neighbouring municipalities (Belica, Donja Dubrava, Donji Vidovec, Sveta Marija, Goričan, Donji Kraljevec, Kotoriba, Dekanovec, Domašinec, Martijanec, Podturen), have improved their result, with a cumulative result of 57.25% of all waste being sorted in 2019 to 65.23% in 2020.

The public sanitation company PRE-KOM in in charge of waste management in Prelog and the neighbouring communities.

The Green Action says the significance of this success is best evidenced by the fact that the EU had set the target rate of waste sorting for Croatia at 50% in the period until 2035.

"All 12 local government units, which are part of PRE-KOM's waste management system, have met the target of 50% waste sorting which was set for Croatia in the period until 2020, and some of them were much more successful. For example, Prelog, with 70%, and Belica municipality, with an impressive waste sorting rate of 80%, show that one can achieve a goal if there is a will," said Košak.

Most towns in Croatia not even close to 20% 

At the same time, most towns in Croatia are not even close to a waste sorting rate of 20% while some are at 0%, with the ministry's blessing, Košak said.

The Green Action says that excellent news is coming from Krk island, where seven local government units have an average waste sorting rate of 53%. Croatia was to have met the waste sorting average of 50% by 2020, he said, noting that communities on Krk island want to achieve a better result, notably in terms of waste generation and increasing recycling and reuse.

The NGO said it looked forward to cooperation with Zagreb and its Čistoća public sanitation company on waste collection and waste disposal charges, on which a decision would soon be put to public consultation.

The decision is expected to help fix the chaotic system of waste management and unjust waste disposal charges in the capital, which has been burdening its residents due to the former city administration's having ignored the problem for a long time, he said.

At meetings of the city's task force, the Green Action has given recommendations on individualising waste disposal charges to make them depend on the quantity of exclusively unsorted waste generated, which will motivate citizens to sort and reduce waste.

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ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Memorials honoring Holocaust victims were put up in the northern Croatian towns of Čakovec and Prelog on Wednesday, with Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor expressing hope that the memorials, called Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks), would prompt young people to ask themselves who those victims were. 

The Stolpersteine placed in the pavement in six locations in Čakovec and two in Prelog commemorate 28 members of the Jewish community and the event was organized by the Jewish community of Čakovec, Čakovec town authorities, the town authorities of Prelog and Međimurje County.

This is an exceptional idea that pays tribute to all families and innocent victims of the Holocaust, Ambassador Mor said, adding that the memory of the victims continued to live in the cities where their names were inscribed in public areas.

The head of the Jewish community in Čakovec, Andrej Pal, said that "certain historical facts falling into oblivion or even being denied contributes to the disappearance of the community that lived and worked in this area and helped develop it."

Pal noted that before World War II 1,200 Jews lived in Međimurje, of whom 700 were killed or went missing during the war.

Međimurje County head Matija Posavec said that with Holocaust remembrance Međimurje was being promoted as a tolerant, open and humane region.

"We have organized The Week of Jewish Culture, the local museum has organized numerous exhibitions, Eva Panich Nahir is an honorary citizen of Čakovec, and the State Archive has restored the Jewish register of births, marriages, and deaths, simply because Jews have left an important mark on Međimurje's economy, culture and overall development," said Posavec.

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February 5, 2021 – A recreational flight in northern Croatia yesterday ended in tragedy when a Medimurje microlight crashed into a lake on the border between Varazdin County and Medimurje County

A recreational flight in the skies above northern Croatia yesterday ended with the tragic death of two people. A Medimurje microlight crashed into a lake near the border between Varazdin County and Medimurje County. Two persons were aboard the Medimurje microlight and both were sadly killed. Their bodies were retrieved from the lake by divers from the Čakovec Public Fire Brigade near the village of Novo Selo na Dravi.

The Medimurje microlight crashed into the accumulation lake of the Čakovec Hydroelectric Power Plant at around 3:22 p.m yesterday afternoon. Međimurje Police Department regrettably confirmed that the deceased were a 35-year-old and a 42-year-old. One was from Novo Selo na Dravi and the other from the Čakovec area.

Both the pilot and co-pilot of the Medimurje microlight were members of the Rode Kite Club from Prelog, which lies just a few kilometres to the east of where the Medimurje microlight crashed, on the other side of the Čakovec Hydroelectric Power Plant. Such is the popularity of the longstanding flight club, the tragic death of two of its members will have a significant impact on the large community that is welcomed at its facilities.

Čakovec Hydroelectric Power Plant © HEP

Leon Krištović, Deputy Commander of the JVP Čakovec fireman's department, said that they received a report from the 112 emergency call centre and upon their arrival at the scene, were met by local fishermen who had witnessed the tragedy. The fishermen had recounted seeing the Medimurje microlight experiencing trouble before it crashed into the lake and were able to state they had seen two people on board. They directed the firemen to the position of the crash in the water, where the sad discovery of the deceased men was made. The Medimurje microlight was also retrieved from the water.

The accident was reported to the Air, Maritime and Railway Accident Investigation Agency (AIN) and the state attorney's office. An investigation will be conducted at the scene of the Medimurje microlight accident on the morning of Friday 5th February 2021 in order to determine the circumstances of this event.

Photo © Vjeran Zganec Rogulja / Index screenshot

All emergency services attended the crash site in order to join the initial response. From pictures of the search operation's aftermath, published in Index, the Medimurje microlight which crashed looks to have been an ultralight trike. It is a type of powered hang glider that has a fabric flex-wing, powered by a propeller at the rear (behind its occupants) and controlled directionally by weight-shift, as with traditional non-motorised hang gliders. Popular since the 1980s, these microlights have a very good reputation for allowing safe, accessible and inexpensive flying.

The airfield and facilities of Rode Kite Club, Prelog © Jakov Balent / Zmajarski klub Rode

The Rode Kite Club (Zmajarski klub Rode) from Prelog has a similarly well-established record for safety. They have their own airfield, which is pristinely maintained, and which welcomes a broad section of Cakovec County and Varazdin County community members to its activities and events, including many families and young people. As well as motorised hang gliding and microlights, over recent years the club has accommodated drone enthusiasts and hosted some light aircraft. It also welcomes enthusiasts of motorised model cars, planes and boats. It sits next to the waters that form a natural barrier between Cakovec County and Varazdin County.

It seems that everyone is talking about masks lately, and everyone of course has to have an opinion on them. The coronavirus pandemic has seen the demand for this otherwise rather obscure item used primarily in healthcare soar, and in some cases, the price for them has sky rocketed with them. One Prelog manufacturer has used the pandemic as an advantage...

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of July, 2020, the ongoing global pandemic of the new coronavirus has accelerated a project to produce protective masks, and plan is to present these particular masks to Croatia's National Civil Protection Headquarters in September. The Prelog-based manufacturer claims that this is mask that can protect its users against the new coronavirus as well as all other biological threats.

Sestan-Busch, a world-famous manufacturer of anti-ballistic safety helmets from the usually overlooked Croatian town of Prelog, is currently completing a project which involves a multifunctional safety helmet for the National Civil Protection Headquarters of the Republic of Croatia, which is co-financed by ESI funds.

''However, the thing that could be of interest everyone is the project of creating a mask that protects people against coronavirus,'' said Goran Basarac, the executive director for strategic development and implementation of the Sestan-Bush project in conversation with Lider.

According to him, the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the Prelog manufacturers project of making these protective masks, which, as previously noted, they plan to present to the National Civil Protection Headquarters in September. 

These Prelog-made masks could find themselves available on the market by the end of this year.

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April 22, 2018 - The town in Međimurje is the fifth in Croatia to carry the prestigious title

Most of the country still isn't ready for separate waste collection.

Discarded objects in Prelog will find new purpose instead of ending up at the dump