09.01.2019.
Minister of Environment and Energy Tomislav Ćorić signed the Decision under which 315 million kuna are granted to the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund for the purchase of containers for separate collection of waste. The funding is a grant obtained under the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014 – 2020.
The Fund will conduct an integrated public procurement procedure in which 1 230 695 containers for 407 local self-government units will be purchased. The towns and municipalities concerned require almost 450 thousand containers for waste paper, 2700 containers for glass, 525 thousand containers for plastics, more than 14 thousand containers for separate collection of bio-waste, and around 113 thousand containers for recyclable waste. 85% of investment will be covered from the European Cohesion Fund, while the remaining 15% will be provided in the budgets of the units of local self-government.
“The Fund has implemented prior consultations concerning the draft Documentation for the procurement of containers for separate collection of municipal waste, and now, in accordance with the prescribed procedures, this documentation has to undergo an ex-ante verification by the Intermediate Body level 2 and the Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFCA). Bearing this mind, it can be expected that tender documentation will be published at the beginning of February”, said director of the Fund Dubravko Ponoš explaining the procurement procedure. Minister Ćorić pointed out that in the previous year the infrastructure was put in place, and that the intention of procurement of utility equipment is to provide to the citizens the required containers so that they could sort waste on their doorsteps. In this way, the share of the landfilled biodegradable and mixed municipal waste would be reduced, while the rate of collection and recycling of waste paper, plastics, glass, and special categories of waste would increase.
Parallel with this, the Fund and the Ministry will continue with education campaigns for the citizens about the proper way to sort waste; many information campaigns will also be conducted by the local self-government units for their residents, which activities will also be financed from EU funds. The combination of education activities and purchase of containers will prompt the fulfilment of the goals set in the Waste Management Plan of the Republic of Croatia for the period until 2022.