Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Coric said on Wednesday that Croatia had made huge progress in waste sorting, which increased from 31 to 37 percentage points in 2019.

“The results in the past few years, notably during 2019, point to Croatia’s huge step forward and a significant increase in awareness among people and all stakeholders in the process,” he told the press, adding that the increase from 31 to 37 pp “has rarely been seen in Europe in the past ten years.”

Coric was asked for a comment on Green Action’s criticism of a new waste management bill, which the NGO says benefits big waste management centres and encourages waste piling and incineration.

The minister said that in the years ahead it was necessary to continue to build and procure the infrastructure on the one hand, and to inform citizens and raise awareness of the need to sort waste at home on the other. “That’s the prerequisite for creating a successful system.”

He said data indicated that citizens were increasingly aware of the need to sort waste and that he was confident awareness would be further raised with next year’s campaigns by the Environmental Protection Fund and the ministry. “If we keep going in that direction, we needn’t worry.”

Coric said Green Action was always “several steps ahead of the system” and that its ideas “challenge” the constitution and decision-makers. “But we must be aware of reality and the fact that several years ago we weren’t even close to the level at which we are today either in terms of infrastructure or awareness.”