Zero waste or, in English, zero waste is a direction that environmentally conscious companies like the largest hotel company in Croatia Valamar Rivera are trying to follow. In its new business strategy published last year, special attention was paid to waste disposal. One of the main twelve ESG goals of that strategy is to increase the waste separation rate. Annually, Valamar separates almost 50 percent of its waste, which is currently above the Croatian and European average.
In addition to adequately separating waste, it also uses composters in which food waste is composted directly at the source. This year, it plans to invest further in composting and bio-waste processing devices. A lot of money is also invested in recycling wastewater; it intends to keep the water extraction intensity below 0.55 cubic meters per occupied room and continue using treated wastewater while optimizing water consumption. One of the goals is to eliminate single-use plastics. The company further sorts, presses, and hands over all types of collected waste to authorized collectors and is currently arranging and equipping a recycling yard for its own needs in Rabac.
Through responsible water and waste management, waste separation, and reduction of single-use plastic usage, recycling of wastewater, and reduction of water consumption, Valamar aims to be better than the average at the EU level in terms of calculations per occupied accommodation unit. They also state that they continuously invest in energy efficiency and circular economy, utilize renewable energy sources, and care for biodiversity.
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15,400 tons of food waste, or 22 percent of the total produced bio-waste, according to data from 2021, is generated annually in the HoReCa channel
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The position of Jadranka group, another large tourism company managing hotels, restaurants, camps, and retail facilities, is that zero waste should not be a trend but a goal that everyone will strive for in the near future. It hands over the collected waste within its facilities to authorized waste collectors.
To manage and improve waste management, this company has a certified environmental management system according to the international standard ISO 14001:2015. Several types of waste are generated throughout the group: mixed municipal, bio-waste, paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, waste portable batteries, waste printer toners, waste from kitchen grease separators, waste from oil separator, electronic waste, as well as smaller quantities of other types of waste: animal waste, wood, textiles, metal waste…
In disposal, the company collaborates with the local utility company and authorized companies specialized in disposing of special types of waste.
One of the companies that disposes of waste from the largest hotel companies in the Istria and Kvarner area is Consultare from Vrbovec, whose director and owner Marko List is currently negotiating waste disposal with potential clients from Dalmatia. According to List, the waste disposal sector, according to data from 2021, generates about seventy tons of food waste annually, of which 22 percent is generated in the HoReCa channel, or 15,400 tons, which is a large amount.
– This waste is anaerobically fermented in biogas plants, producing electrical and thermal energy, as well as digestate, a high-value organic fertilizer. To use waste from the HoReCa channel in these plants, it needs to be cleaned of impurities such as cutlery, plates, various containers, and other types of impurities that are often found in waste containers due to negligent employee behavior – says List.
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A fast food outlet operating in a 10 square meter space pays only 20 euros a month for waste disposal, while daily filling two 100-liter waste containers
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To solve this problem, the company Consultare offers a device on the Croatian market that transforms waste into homogenized and clean raw material usable for biogas plants. Waste disposed of in this way is utilized one hundred percent, leaving no residues that would pollute the environment.
Specialist assistance
In the Dalmatia area, waste disposal is handled by the company Bio ulja from Šibenik, which collaborates with almost all major hotel companies: Amadria Park, Solaris hotels, Punta Skala, Primošten, Medena, Valamar Hotels Dubrovnik, and more than a thousand restaurants, fast food outlets, and cafes.
– We collect and send for disposal several types of non-hazardous waste, and since we work mostly with hotels and catering facilities, the largest share of the collected waste relates to biodegradable waste, waste cooking oil, and packaging waste, i.e., plastic, glass, cardboard, metal packaging, and similar. Waste cooking oil is sent for biodiesel production, biodegradable waste for anaerobic digestion in biogas plants that produce electrical energy from that raw material, and all types of packaging are sent to authorized companies for recycling – says Slađana Bijelić, a member of the Management Board of Bio ulja.
According to her, the advantage of engaging waste disposal companies is that it greatly facilitates the work of hotels and restaurants, which can only take care of some types of waste independently, while companies like Bio ulja are specialized exclusively for the collection and disposal of non-hazardous waste and provide a comprehensive service in accordance with all legal regulations and rules on waste management, to which they themselves are subject.
– This is precisely the greatest advantage for hotels and restaurants when engaging a waste disposal company because with one company they solve all types of waste and achieve high percentages and realization in waste separation and recycling, resulting in the lowest possible share of municipal waste – explains Bijelić.
Sad practice
However, waste disposal companies face significant challenges due to poor waste separation. According to Zoran Antić, director and owner of the company Ka-plus from Rijeka, in four types of kitchen waste generated in hotels, restaurants, fast food outlets, and cafes, there is a mix of everything because waste is not properly separated.
– Biodegradable waste and waste in general are best separated by hotels in Istria, northern Croatia, Zagreb, and Zagreb County; others do not make much effort. Some even do not engage waste collection companies but instead illegally dump waste in landfills. For example, a café in Rijeka fills four to five bags of bio-waste daily, i.e., fruit for juices and coffees, and dumps it in a landfill where it rots and smells instead of engaging a waste disposal company that would forward it to biogas plants for processing and electricity production.
In Croatia, there are six such companies, and only two operate with just over 50 percent capacity. Restaurants and cafes do not separate waste well; restaurants do so in only 10 percent of cases, and cafes even less – says Antić.
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Unlike companies specialized exclusively for the collection and disposal of non-hazardous waste, hotels and restaurants can independently dispose of only some types of waste
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His company collects waste from several kindergartens in Zagreb and a school in Ogulin, and all the bio-waste it collects is sent to the biogas plant Moslavina from Čazma, which needs 200 tons of bio-waste to produce one megawatt of electricity. According to Antić, this amount is quickly collected, but it contains only 20 to 30 tons of waste from hotels, restaurants, and cafes, while it could be much more.
– Although there is potential, the growth of the waste disposal market is negligible because waste is inadequately managed. A fast food outlet operating in a 10 square meter space pays only 20 euros a month for waste disposal, while daily filling two 100-liter waste containers. This waste is dumped in a mixed waste landfill, and part of such waste from restaurants and fast food outlets ends up with pig farmers, which has been prohibited by law since 2008 – says Antić.
According to him, there are multiple benefits to waste disposal through companies specialized for that purpose: waste ends up where it should be and reduces the overall disposal cost, which ranges from 0.5 to one percent of revenue.
