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Management of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Croatia: analysis of current practices with performance benchmarking against other EU member states

The European Commission has adopted a very ambitious Circular Economy Package and has consequently revised many legislative proposals on waste. The new targets include achieving a recycling rate of 65% by 2030 and imposing a cap on landfilled waste to no more than 10% (as a percentage of weight). Using available European and national databases on municipal solid waste (MSW) indicators we have analysed MSW production trends for Croatia and have benchmarked the indicators against other EU member states and EU averages. Our analysis points out that the production of MSW has steadily risen over the last two decades. Although Croatia produces relatively low amount of MSW compared to other EU countries and EU averages, GDP adjusted waste production reveals that for every EUR of GDP Croatia produces substantial amounts of MSW. As a matter of fact, among all the EU member states a worse performance than Croatia had only Bulgaria. Regarding recycling rates, Croatia recycles 15 % of its MSW and treats approx. 3 % (by weight). The rest (82% by weight) is currently being landfilled. To mitigate price volatility in prices of recyclables we advise on implementing rate stabilization funds and banning plastic bags, polystyrene and glass from community recycling programmes. Regarding the treatment of waste, Croatia has implemented the mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) technology but our analysis reveals that the initial number of MBT plants will likely have to be scaled down taking into consideration the new EU waste management targets.

MSW, Croatia, circular economy, waste indicators, benchmarking, EU

CSA Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management ; Clarivate Analytics ; Elsevier BIOBASE ; International Civil Engineering Abstracts ; Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition ; Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition ; WasteInfo