A lot of calls made to the Green Phone of association Sunce were actually complaints about the illegal disposal of construction waste. Waste was often disposed of at private parcels owned by the notifiers or in its vicinity, which gravely affected the quality of the environment in which they live.
It was estimated that approximately 2,600,000 tonnes of construction waste is accumulated every year in Croatia and the amount keeps increasing. 138,865.62 tonnes of construction waste was accumulated in Split-Dalmatia County, which is the most after the City of Zagreb. Almost half of that amount is disposed of at municipal waste depots despite the fact 80% of the waste is still eligible for recycling. At the time being, only 7% of the waste is recycled, while 11% is used as secondary raw material. 80% of construction waste can be recycled after it is separated, but most companies do not separate the earth from the concrete, bricks and armature after the completion of works.
Construction waste is also prevalent in illegal depots and makes up more than 80% of all waste in certain cities and municipalities due to lax monitoring and failure to mete out fines to construction waste owners, such as owners, investors or contractors that are required to bear the costs of construction waste management. The disposal of construction waste is regulated by the Ordinance on the Management of Construction Waste, which was adopted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Physical Planning in April 2008. A six-month deadline was determined in the Ordinance, within which the counties and the City of Zagreb were supposed to determine locations for managing construction waste, while the waste owner was supposed to provide for conditions for the separate collection and temporary storage of waste. The Ordinance lays down the rules for the establishment of a system that would ensure that 80% of waste is recycled.
The current situation indicates that the Ordinance is not in full effect yet and that poor management waste causes loss of money, since the waste is disposed of and not recycled. Gravel is much cheaper if it’s made by pulverising construction waste instead of being extracted from quarries and it can be used for levelling roads, as sub grade for canal lining and concreting.
In May 2009 we posed the following questions to the Administrative Department for Environmental Protection:
How many permits for managing construction waste have been issued and how many concessions have been granted by the Department?
At how many, if any, recycling yards is construction waste collected?
Doesn't the large number of illegal construction waste depots indicate certain irregularities in waste management, despite the adoption of relevant laws and by-laws, physical planning and the granting of concessions?
In their opinion, what are the main problems concerning waste management and did they calculate the losses of the Republic of Croatia, that is, Split-Dalmatia county due to poor waste management?
After asking when the Ordinance on the Management of Construction Waste will come into effect in Split-Dalmatia County, we were given vague answers (NN 38/08)