Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic said on Friday that he had decided to cancel a tender for the removal of bulky waste in Zagreb, adding that the city-owned sanitation company Cistoca would be doing the job.

Two valid bids have been submitted, one by Reoma Group and the other by the Ce-Za-r company, Tomasevic said.

Cistoca will be in charge of removing the city’s bulky waste once it procures a crusher.

A procedure for the procurement of two crushers with the help of EU funds is currently underway, and until it is completed, the city will hire a crusher, Tomasevic told reporters.

The mayor presented the temporary solution to the problem of bulky waste removal after the removal of some types of bulky waste – padded furniture and mattresses – was stopped in Zagreb.

The mayor said Cistoca estimated its model of bulky waste removal would help save 33 million kuna a year.

Asked when the removal of waste in Zagreb would be normalised, Tomasevic asked the people of Zagreb for patience, noting that the procedure to hire the crusher should be completed by the end of next week, as a temporary solution until Cistoca procures crushers.

Waste removal discontinued as quantity agreed under current contract reached

The removal of bulky waste in Zagreb is currently suspended because the quantity of waste whose removal was agreed under a contract with the companies Ce-za-r and Reoma Group has been reached.

“Even though the contract is valid until January 2022, the amount of waste agreed under it has been reached and that happened sooner than planned due to a large amount of bulky waste, which is primarily due to reconstruction after the earthquake,” Tomasevic explained.

Cistoca sought procurement of crusher for years

Tomasevic also warned that the price of bulky waste removal of 1,800 kuna per tonne, currently paid by Zagreb, was the highest in the country, adding that the nearby town of Samobor, whose bulky waste was also removed by a private company, paid around  700 kuna per tonne and the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka 1,100 kuna per tonne.

He also said that Cistoca had been asking for years to buy a crusher.

“I really don’t know why no one had thought of buying a crusher. I mean, obviously someone had, because there are documents showing that Cistoca asked for it but its requests were left out of public procurement plans for years,” he said.

Asked if the city would now accept the offer by Ce-ZA-r which on Thursday offered to remove bulky waste free of charge until the completion of the tender, Tomasevic said he did not receive any formal offer to that effect but learned of it from the media.

He also said that free waste removal was offered in a situation when the tender was still valid.