Forget about germknedle and mulled wine without a deposit for packaging

On the agenda of the City of Zagreb Assembly meeting, alongside the budget rebalancing, a proposal will soon be decided that could completely change the way Zagreb’s city events and part of the hospitality sector operate.

The strictest ban yet

Namely, city representatives could vote on the Decision to reduce the use of plastic products, which under the aegis of circular economy and ecological sustainability brings the strictest bans yet for all events on city surfaces and in spaces managed by the City, city institutions, and companies.

If the proposal passes, the first to be affected will be mega-popular events such as Advent in Zagreb and numerous other extremely popular street food festivals that have been attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors for years.

The decision obliges all public event organizers to completely eliminate single-use plastic by the beginning of 2027 at the latest. However, it is not just plastic that is being eliminated.

Invisible coatings

The decision is so rigorous that any cardboard or bamboo packaging containing an invisible plastic coating or foil is considered a plastic product that is banned, which means that hospitality providers operating in city spaces and event organizers on public surfaces must completely eliminate such containers and switch to other permitted alternatives or reusable systems.

This includes bamboo containers with plastic coatings and wrappers for burek with plastic coatings, but that is not all. The decision goes so far as to ban even balloons, confetti, and other plastic decorations.

And all this will have huge consequences for business. Hospitality providers and event organizers will have to establish complex systems of reusable cups and containers instead of the previous simple system in which visitors consumed food and drinks from single-use packaging.

New costs

This implies a new hit on costs as the introduction of mandatory deposits, fees, or replacement tokens for each issued cup and container, as well as ensuring complete infrastructure for collection, washing, sanitation, and redistribution of packaging certainly comes at a price.

The Zagreb decision also affects traditional hospitality providers operating in business premises owned by the City or city companies. All tenants offering food and drinks to go will have to allow customers to purchase in their own containers or in reusable packaging, with a deadline for complete business adjustment set for mid-2027.

A legitimate question that must now be asked is how all this will affect service speed, hygiene standards, and ultimately, the final price of mulled wine, debrecinka in pastry, or burgers.

Also affected are gifts

Alongside the impact on festivals and cafes, the decision also brings a complete reform of city public procurement. All single-use plastic items, non-recyclable packaging, and promotional gifts made from non-recyclable plastic are being eliminated from city administrative bodies, institutions, and Zagreb Holding.

However, Article 2 leaves an exception that allows for the temporary use of plastic if there are health, safety, or technical reasons for it. However, the question remains how broadly these exceptions allowed for those reasons will be interpreted in practice.

The decision refers to the Waste Management Plan of the City of Zagreb until 2029 and to the laws on waste management and communal economy, and if the decision passes, which is very likely, its implementation will be monitored by the city administrative body responsible for ecological sustainability, to which institutions and companies will have to submit reports on measures taken upon request.