The government has sent a proposal for a law on sustainable waste management to the Parliament from today’s session, which the Minister of Environment and Nature Protection, Mihael Zmajlović, assesses will fundamentally change communal behavior and the relationship of citizens towards waste.
With the proposed law, the government is transferring many competencies and obligations related to waste management to local self-government units.
They will, for example, have to ensure separate collection of various types of waste, meaning that primary selection will be their obligation. This practically means that local self-government units, if the Parliament accepts the government’s proposal, will have to provide containers for separate collection of various types of waste in front of citizens’ homes.
Of course, this will also cost, says Zmajlović, but he warns that the current system of a ‘heap’ for all waste incurs high costs of numerous disposals and remediation, which have amounted to more than 500 million kuna since 2005, and the buried land is worth another five billion kuna.
The government also proposes a new method of bulky waste disposal, according to which local self-government units must enable citizens to hand over waste for free at recycling yards or provide a call-in transportation service.
The government also adopted a regulation at today’s session that introduces equal restrictions for workers from EU member states that have limited access to their labor markets for Croatian workers, effective July 1. According to the regulation adopted today on the temporary application of rules regarding the employment of citizens of EU member states and their families, explained by the Minister of Labor and Pension System Mirando Mrsić, the employment of citizens from EU member states that have introduced transitional periods for Croatia due to the protection of their labor market is temporarily restricted.
