ZAGREB, 31 Aug, 2021 - The Green Action and the "Sisak isn't a waste disposal site" civil initiative have called on the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development to discard the plan to build a waste and residual sludge incinerator in Sisak, which is a seismologically active area.

The NGOs said that citizens had stood in defence of public interest in Zagreb and Konjščina when they stopped the construction of a waste incinerator there and that they will do the same for Sisak.

They are disgruntled because an environmental impact study justifying the construction of the incinerator in Sisak was put up for public debate from 2 to 31 August, a period of summer holidays.

They warned that waste from all over Croatia would be brought to the incinerator in Sisak that will have a capacity of 100,000 tonnes of waste and 50,000 tonnes of residual sludge, and it could have unforeseeable economic, ecological and health hazards.

They further pointed out that Croatia was turning to outdated solutions while the EU's Green Deal stimulates refraining from incinerators and encourages the use of sustainable solutions to use waste as a secondary crude material for industrial production.

Incineration would pose a potential threat to the environment and health of Sisak's residents because the environmental impact study ignored the fact that fires have erupted at waste incinerators throughout the EU as have excessive levels of hazardous gas emissions.

"The incinerator must not be an alternative for waste as a consequence of the failed attempt with waste management centres. It is necessary to change the way combined waste is managed and follow the principles of circular economy that treats waste as a resource and not as rubbish transformed into toxic waste," the NGOs said.

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ZAGREB, 13 Aug 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević said on Friday that he had decided to cancel a tender for the removal of bulky waste in Zagreb, with two valid bids having been submitted, one by Reoma Group and the other by the Ce-Za-r company, noting that the city-owned sanitation company Čistoća would be doing the job.

Čistoća will be in charge of removing the city's bulky waste once it procures a crusher.

A procedure for the procurement of two crushers with the help of EU funds is currently underway, and until it is completed, the city will hire a crusher, Tomašević told reporters.

The mayor presented the temporary solution to the problem of bulky waste removal after the removal of some types of bulky waste - padded furniture and mattresses - was stopped in Zagreb.

The mayor said Čistoća estimated its model of bulky waste removal would help save HRK 33 million a year.

Asked when the removal of waste in Zagreb would be normalised, Tomašević asked citizens for patience, noting that the procedure to hire the crusher should be completed by the end of next week, as a temporary solution until Čistoća procures crushers.

Waste removal discontinued as quantity agreed under current contract reached 

The removal of bulky waste in Zagreb is currently suspended because the quantity of waste whose removal was agreed under a contract with the companies Ce-za-r and Reoma Group has been reached.

"Even though the contract is valid until January 2022, the amount of waste agreed under it has been reached and that happened sooner than planned due to a large amount of bulky waste, which is primarily due to reconstruction after the earthquake," Tomašević explained.

Čistoća sought procurement of crusher for years

Tomašević also warned that the price of bulky waste removal of HRK 1,800 per tonne, currently paid by Zagreb, was the highest in the country, adding that the nearby town of Samobor, whose bulky waste was also removed by a private company, paid around HRK 700 per tonne and the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka HRK 1,100 per tonne.

He also said that Čistoća had been asking for years to buy a crusher.

"I really don't know why no one had thought of buying a crusher. I mean, obviously someone had, because there are documents showing that Čistoća asked for it but its requests were left out of public procurement plans for years," he said.

Asked if the city would now accept the offer by Ce-ZA-r which on Thursday offered to remove bulky waste free of charge until the completion of the tender, Tomašević said he did not receive any formal offer to that effect but learned of it from the media.

He also said that free waste removal was offered in a situation when the tender was still valid.

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As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 3rd of August, 2020, although in Croatia we often complain that we lag considerably far behind most other European Union member states in terms of waste management, the latest data from the EU statistical office Eurostat shows that Croatia is in actual fact the absolute leader in terms of the disposal of batteries and accumulators.

According to Eurostat, in the last three years alone, the Republic of Croatia has collected as much as 96% of all of its sold batteries and accumulators for recycling. The EU average in this regard is a mere 48%, and when it comes to other countries, Poland is behind Croatia with 81%, Luxembourg with 69% and Belgium with 62%. At the back of the line, with less than 40% of the collected waste of this type, lie Spain, Italy, Marla, Slovenia, Greece, and Portugal and at the very end are Cyprus and Estonia with a mark of just 30%. The market for batteries and accumulators across the EU is relatively stable and in 2010 it amounted to 176,000 tonnes, and by 2013, the year Croatia joined the bloc, it dropped to 169,000 tonnes and in 2018 it climbed back up to 191,000 tonnes.

In contrast, there is a significant increase in the amount of collected waste of this type, going from 55,000 tonnes in 2010 to a much higher 88,000 tonnes a couple of years ago in 2018. This means that the share of collected and later disposed of waste batteries and accumulators rose from 35 percent in 2010 to 48 percent in 2018, which is the last processed set of figures in this statistic.

Croatia has a relatively well-organised system for collecting this type of special waste, which takes place through seven companies registered with the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency (EPEEF). The biggest player here is certainly the Zagreb-based CIAK, followed by Flora VTC from Virovitica, Friš from Križevci, Metis (Cios group) from Kukuljanovo, OS from Zadar, STR akumulator from Đurđevac and Univerzal from Varaždin. The Fund points out that the system of collecting and recovering batteries and accumulators across Croatia was established back in 2007.

“A legal or natural person who places batteries or accumulators on the Croatian market of the EPEEF pays a certain fee which is used for the organisation of the entire system of the collection and disposal of this type of waste. The goal is to reduce the negative impact on the environment with such a systematic approach,'' they say from the Fund. They explain that in other management systems of special categories of waste, Croatia records very good results and has high collection rates. This sector will gain even more importance in the coming period due to the rapid development of electric vehicles, for which, in turn, the battery is a key component. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, there are six million electric vehicles in the world today, and it is projected that this number will rise to 50 million by the year 2030. The value of this new market is estimated at around 250 billion euros by 2025 at the EU level, while the market for all other batteries will reach barely 10 billion euros by 2027.

As pointed out by the director of the Sector for Energy and Environmental Protection of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), Marija Šćulac Domac, the key niche is electric cars and lithium-ion batteries, which are expected to grow by 8 to 9 percent annually. Currently, the demand for batteries is high. Panasonic is meeting the Japanese demand, Samsung is meeting the Korean demand, and Europe needs to find its own source. Sweden's Northvolt is the only large European manufacturer with a large factory in Poland, and France and Germany are launching an initiative to research and develop batteries for electric vehicles with an investment of between five and six billion euros.

The Zagreb company Munja is, at least as far as is known, the only Croatian manufacturer of accumulators and batteries. Zagreb's CIAK is also a significant player in the market, but it is primarily a general importer, agent and distributor for Croatia when it comes to many global battery brands such as Varta, Optima, Trojan, Faam, Miac, Leoch and others. They also have their own CIAK brand, but they don't have, at least as far as is known, production in the Republic of Croatia, and their CIAK Starter batteries arrived from the Johnson Controls factory (Varta, Optima) located in the Czech Republic.

Here in Croatia, there are other companies involved in the sector, including Grom from Velika Gorica and the aforementioned Friš that have their own brands of batteries and accumulators, but which also probably have supplies from manufacturers from abroad.

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