02.03.2022.
Mayor Ivan Radić, the mayor of Osijek, and Tomislav Ćorić, the minister of economy and sustainable development, opened today the fourth in a row civic amenity site. The opening was attended by the state secretary Nataša Mikuš Žigman, the deputy-mayor of Osijek-Baranja County Mato Lukić, the manager of the Osijek utility company Unikom Igor Pandžić, and the representatives of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.“Here in Osijek we are continually investing in waste management, and we have many successful projects the Town has completed in cooperation with the Ministry and the Fund. The Town of Osijek contracted and completed more than HRK 165 million-worth environmental projects financed from EU resources, while more than 180 million kunas were contracted and implemented in the field of energy efficiency,” said at the opening event the head of the environmental Protection sector at the Fund, Aleksandra Čilić.
“The construction of this civic amenity site in the Lower Town means that Osijek is complying with its legal obligations, and the citizens are getting yet another location where they can dispose of 48 types of waste free of charge, including hazardous waste. The value of this project is HRK 5.1 million, of which 85% is co-financed by the European Union from the Cohesion Fund,” said mayor Ivan Radić, reminding that the construction of the civic amenity site for the construction waste in Sarvaš was in progress. He added that apartment buildings in Osijek already had the option to separate waste at source, and that soon all houses would also be able to do so as the distribution of containers for biowaste and plastics to households was under way. The mayor pointed out that Osijek was the only larger Croatian town that didn’t have to pay waste penalties for 2020, and he expected that this year they would accomplish the EU target of 50% of separately collected waste, thus becoming the first major city to have accomplished this.
Minister Ćorić je pointed out that Osijek was covering all parts of the waste management pyramid in the best possible way. “I’m glad that Osijek is such an exemplary town in Croatia giving due consideration to its waste management and environmental policies through the development of the infrastructure, remediation of landfills, and education of their citizens,” said Ćorić.
Igor Pandžić, Unikom manager, reminded that the Town of Osijek also has a bring bank for collecting the waste from the Osijek suburbs, and it is one of few towns with its own composting plant where biowaste from the commons and households is processed into compost.
Osijek is one of Croatia’s bigger towns leading in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development. This is confirmed by the remediation of the landfill in Sarvaš that is under way, where more than 1,340,000 m3 of municipal waste on 12 hectares had been landfilled in the period 1968 – 1989. This is the largest landfill remediation project in Croatia, worth more than 73 million kunas. Two such landfills have already been successfully remediated in Osijek area, in Nemetin and Filipovica.
“A lot of money has been invested in these projects, and Osijek is the model of success because their projects were mainly co-financed from EU funds, or from national resources through the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund,” concluded Čilić.
Until the construction of the regional waste management centre Orlovnjak is completed, the remaining unsorted municipal waste will be disposed of at the landfill Lončarica Velika, the only active landfill in Osijek. It is constantly being remediated, with past investments of more than HRK 12 million.
