Recycling is a big business worldwide, as evidenced by the fact that every second ton is produced from secondary raw materials. After a fivefold increase in the purchase price of scrap vehicles, as many as 15,000 old cars were recycled last year.
writes Ante Livajić
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photo Željko Jelenski
A walk along the sandy beach of one of the Adriatic islands, a hike up Velebit, or a stroll through the nearby forest can often be spoiled by the rusty wreck of an old car. Such sights can be encountered throughout Beautiful Croatia, as old and dilapidated cars are left in the most incredible places, from Plitvice Lakes to various pits and ponds. Until recently, plastic bottles could be found in almost every corner of nature, but since money can be obtained for them, they have mysteriously disappeared from the environment. A similar situation is happening with abandoned cars, but at a slower pace. Today, in Croatia, a car can be recycled, meaning it can be dismantled into the materials from which it is made, which are then sold as secondary raw materials. In this process of car processing, hazardous components that could pollute the environment are extracted and disposed of separately.
500
kuna is what owners of scrap vehicles receive if they sell their old car weighing approximately one ton for recycling.
Earnings from Recycling
In Croatia, several companies collect scrap cars. The largest is the C.I.O.S. group, which also recycles them. Scrap cars need to be removed from the environment for several reasons. The main one is that the vehicle is considered hazardous waste because it contains dangerous parts such as oils, acids from batteries, or fluids from air conditioning systems. Such vehicles not only spoil nature but also unnecessarily occupy space in citizens’ garages and yards, as well as parking spaces in cities. Most citizens of Croatia do not know that disposing of scrap vehicles is free, and that money can even be obtained for such vehicles. This is the main reason why they end up abandoned in the environment. The action of collecting old unusable vehicles was initiated five years ago by the C.I.O.S. group in collaboration with Romeo Ibrišević. To date, they have removed 13,000 cars left in islands, national parks, cities, and towns from the environment. To intensify the collection of vehicles, last year they launched an action in which 500 kuna is received for a scrap vehicle weighing approximately one thousand kilograms. – We were dissatisfied with the quantities of vehicles collected, so in June of last year, we initiated an action of paying 50 instead of 10 lipa per kilogram of scrap vehicle. After that move, the number of collected vehicles significantly increased. We plan to continue to engage the public – explained Frane Rogoznica from the C.I.O.S. group. Last year, they managed to collect and recycle about 15,000 vehicles. In that company, vehicles are dismantled into their constituent components. First, hazardous components of the vehicle are removed, and then it is dismantled into non-hazardous materials such as glass, plastic, tires, and clean metal. The C.I.O.S. group focuses on the metal parts of vehicles, which are cut into small pieces and sold as secondary raw materials.
