Croatia introducing mandatory Pay-As-You-Throw regulation for waste management

The Croatian government on Thursday adopted the "pay-as-you-throw" (PAYT) regulation for household waste envisaging compulsory waste taxes in all units of local self-government, and under the PAYT, users are charged a rate based on how much waste they submit for collection to the municipality or local authority.

Croatia is also introducing the stimulation fees to reward people for efforts in the field of waste selection and recycling.

The adoption of this regulation is one of the ex ante conditions for the absorption of the means from the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion for the 2014-2020 period and 475 million euro is made available for financing the waste management sector.

"Some towns and cities have already started to charge households for waste collection, according to the amount of waste thrown out," a state secretary in the Environment Protection Ministry, Mario Siljeg, said at the cabinet meeting.

In addition, stimulating measures, that is rewards, are being introduced to enhance the waste selection and reduce the waste disposal. By 2020, Croatia has to reach the target of recycling 50% of municipal waste, and it currently this stands at 24%, Siljeg said.

In early January this year, Croatia adopted a new 2016-2022 Waste Management Plan embracing the principles of a circular economy.

Text: Hina

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