Plastic Tax: Croatia

Croatia is the 10th largest plastic goods producer and the 10th waste generator in the region. 

 

Croatia generates 400kTs of plastic waste each year, or 96 kg of plastic per capita. It has the 3rd highest per capita waste generation in the region. Tourism is a key factor in this waste generation, increasing waste substantially in summer months. The majority of waste in Croatia has a linear fate, as 67 percent of waste is sent directly to landfill, and 6 percent is incinerated. Only 16 percent of waste is recycled, due to low collection rates, contaminated waste streams, and limited recycling infrastructure. Uncollected waste is the main cause of plastic leakage into nature, leading to 40kT of plastic ending up in nature each year.

 

Around 4kT of plastic enters the Mediterranean from Croatia, including 18 percent from sea-based sources, such as ghost finishing nets and equipment. Half of this waste makes its way back to pollute Croatian coastlines each year. This plastic pollution causes an estimated EUR 8 Million loss to the Croatian Blue Economy, including tourism, fishing and shipping.

 

Management of Packaging Waste regulates the way in which the targets for packaging waste management are achieved, the fees for management and the refund fee and regulates the public service of gathering municipal waste and more specifically the separate collection of certain types of waste, such as plastic. 

 

A proposal of a new Waste Management Act is in Parliament procedure. The Act is proposed with the aim to, among other things, implement relevant EU legislation regarding single-use plastics. The proposed Act prescribes a ban on:

 

In Croatia there is a refund fee system in place, which is a system for management of single-use packaging made of PET, Al/Fe and glass with a volume equal to and greater than 0.20 l and intended for beverages. The refund fee is paid as an incentive measure encouraging the waste holder to separate beverage packaging waste from other waste and hand it over to the seller or the person who manages the recycling yard and receive a refund amount for it.

 

The refund fee is the amount of money that producers, who place on the market beverages packaged in single-use packaging, pay to the Fund. The producer charges the amount of the refund fee to the buyer by selling the product. The end user or consumer is entitled to a refund of the fee amount from the seller or the person operating the recycling yard by returning the beverage packaging waste. The Fund refunds to the seller or the person operating the recycling yard the amount of the refund fee paid to the end user or consumer from the amount of the refund fee paid by the producer to the Fund.

 

Currently, the refund fee is set at HRK 0.5 per beverage packaging and there is no specific regulation regarding micro-plastics or microbeads, but this is expected to change as a new legislation is adopted at the EU level.

 

Statistics show that landfilling rates in Croatia are very high (73 percent) and PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT recycling rates are still too low (18 percent) to comply with the waste hierarchy and with the 50 percent set in the EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD). The separate collection system is organized by establishing a system of bring points (individual or co-mingled containers or grouped in “green islands”), and while 24percent of plastics is subject to separate collection in Croatia, a mere 18percent ends up being properly collected for recycling. Around 8 ERP mechanisms currently exist in Croatia, covering different types of wastes, financed through the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.

 

Plastic bags are banned from January 2022, and bottles with a plastic lid from July 2024. Some other products will be banned in the coming years. A ban on plastic bags, except for very light ones, took effect in January 2022, while products with a plastic lid, such as bottles and other containers, will not be allowed from July 3, 2024.

 

The use of recycled materials in food packaging is regulated at the EU level. Croatian law additionally regulates details in accordance with these regulations, such as bodies competent for the implementation of these regulations and fines for manufacturing and putting on the market objects and materials intended for direct contact with food, which are not in line with the mentioned regulations.

 

Generally, a producer of a product is oblige to plan the development, production and advertising of products and packaging for products in such a way that production is improved by the application of clean technologies, and in a way that allows efficient use of materials and energy, encourages reuse and recycling of products with the most appropriate procedure for recovery and/or disposal of expired products in order to minimise the adverse impact on the environment.

 

A producer and importer of packaged products is obligated to fulfil the packaging waste management goals in proportion to the amount of packaging from the products, which they put on the market. This is accomplished by paying the waste management fee to the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund (“Fund”).

 

A producer of packaging, producer of a packaged product and other prescribed persons must register in the Registry of Managing Special Categories of Waste and deliver to the Registry the prescribed information regarding packaging and packaging waste. 

 

A producer and importer of packaged products is obligated to inform the seller and consumer on the relevant properties of the product and its packaging regarding dangerous and harmful substances they contain and on the manner of handling the product and packaging when they become waste.

 

A producer and importer of packaged products who puts on the market returnable packaging is obligated to ensure the return and repeated use of all returnable packaging which they put on the market.

 

The tax on non-recyclable plastic packaging is one of the new taxes on its way to Croatia as of 2021 that will finance the repayment of a part of the 750 billion euro loan that will finance measures to revive the economies of European Union countries affected by the coronavirus crisis.

 

The tax on non-recyclable plastic was introduced on the 1 of January 2021, it will be imposed by all European Union Member States and will repay the joint debt. The tax rate is EUR 800 per ton of non-recyclable plastic packaging. These taxes, at least not directly, will not be borne by citizens. The revenue will go directly to the EU treasury, and not to the budgets of the Member States that collect it. 

 

The main central government stakeholders are the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MEE); Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds (MRDEUF); the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund (EPEEF); and Croatian Agency for Environment and Nature (CAEN). The MEE governess the waste management laws, strategies and sector plans; MEDEUF sets priorities, and prepares strategic and operational documents, for use of EU funds; EPEEF acts as Intermediate Body 2 for EU funds and is a central source for collecting and investing extra-budgetary resources into programs and projects that protect nature and the environment. 

 

Implementation of waste management is decentralized in Croatia, taking place predominantly with local government units (LGUs), while regional government units (RGUs) have role in planning of the Waste Management Centers (WMC). There are 556 LGUs in Croatia; they have on average 6,000 inhabitants (excluding city of Zagreb). More than 200 companies are contracted to deal with municipal waste. 

 

The operational responsibility of waste management is led by municipalities, including collection, transport and disposal of waste. The service may be provided by the municipalities, or delegated to a public agency of intercommunal cooperation or to a private group. The country is moving from decentralized disposal of non-treated waste on numerous local sub-standard landfills within counties to centralized waste management and Waste Management Centers (WMC) serving the needs of one or several counties. 

 

The national annual targets for packaging waste management encourage to:

• separately collect and (materially or energetically) recover at least 60 percent of the total mass of packaging waste generated in the territory of the Republic of Croatia;
• recycle at least 55 percent up to a maximum of 80 percent of the total mass of packaging waste intended for material recovery;
• achieve minimum recycling rates of packaging materials contained in packaging waste, as follows:
  • 60 percent mass for glass;
  • 60 percent mass for paper and cardboard;
  • 50 percent mass for metals; 
  • 22.5 percent mass for plastics, including only material recycled back to plastics;
  • 15 percent mass for wood.

   

The proposal of the new Waste Management Act adds to this goal and provides that by 31 December 2025 at least 65 percent of mass of the total packaging waste must be recycled, while until 31 December 2030 this percentage must be at least 70percent. The proposal of the new Waste Management Act also gives the percentages of mass of specific materials in packaging waste (e.g. plastic, etc.) that must be recycled by the above deadlines.

 

In 2019, small customary levy and fee for distributors plastic bags of USD 1,500 per ton of bags was adopted. In the same year, the Parliament voted to ban single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws, stirrers, and polystyrene cups from oxo-degradable plastics as per the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive. 

 

Not all plastic and metal can be recycled. The following products should not be put into the recycling bins:

 

These items are considered hazardous waste. 

 

Croatia is among the few Mediterranean countries collecting waste through several different material streams, typically being: paper, plastic, glass and metal. Separate waste collection is one of the most effective methods to reduce the cost of sorting and to improve the steady flow of secondary plastic. To reduce its plastic pollution, Croatia should focus on further reducing consumption, improving collection and increasing recycling. 

 

Fiscal penalties have been an effective method to ensure country identify, close, and rehabilitate open dumpsites. The European Commission has previously sanctioned countries that have failed to close dumpsites declared illegal. To tackle the issue of illegal dump sites, investments were made on new facilities, and satellite imagery and drone technology is being used to identify dumping sites for hazardous waste.