World Bank (WB) Country Manager for Croatia, Elisabetta Capannelli and Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Coric signed an agreement on Tuesday whereby the bank will support Croatia in transforming its waste management system, the WB stated.

As part of its technical support, the principle of circular waste management will be built into Croatia’s Waste Management Plan after 2022 in line with EU directives and package of measures for circular waste management, the WB said in a press release.

Croatia is currently falling behind in achieving the EU objectives that are related to reducing the quantity of waste, mostly due to the poor technical and financial capacities of its city and municipal authorities to separate waste and encourage recycling.

The World Bank will assist in revising the existing waste management plan and recommend ways to accelerate its transformation in line with the EU’s plan for a circular economy.

“In the coming years it will be challenging to respond to the objectives awaiting us and they are that by the end of 2020 we are expected to have 50% of waste paper, metal, plastic and glass separated and recycled and we have to take steps to meet those demanding objectives and to increase separated and recycled waste to 65% and decrease waste disposal to 10% by 2035,” said Coric.

Over the past three years the government has worked intensively on establishing the necessary infrastructure to establish an efficient waste management system and the results are visible at the regional and local level, he added.

Coric underlined that the agreement with the World Bank is a step further in transforming to a circular economy.

Capannelli underscored that transforming waste to a resource means a circular economy. If we repeat production, reuse and recycle waste from one sector it could be raw material for another and we will come closer to a circular economy, said the WB official.

That will help reduce health and environmental problems, reduce greenhouse emissions and avoid negative effects at the local level which devastate the local landscape with landfills and pollute the air and waters.

The World Bank will readily provide support to Croatian institutions and cooperate with key stakeholders in creating a cleaner and more sustainable Croatia, she said.

The World Bank has been in Croatia since 1993 and in that time it has provided about $4 billion in aid for more than 50 projects.

Currently, the aid is directed to relieving the economic and social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, helping reconstruction following the March 22 earthquake, and projects in transport, judiciary, innovation, business environment, land management, agriculture and economic development of the Slavonia region.