November the 13th, 2026 – Croatia is currently facing a serious waste crisis, in which waste could end up in the streets and forests. In some cases, it often already is.
The Ekologija grada (City Ecology) association recently warned of the growing problem of waste acceptance at landfills in Croatia, assessing that due to insufficient capacities and the refusal to accept waste from other areas, regular waste collection could be interrupted in part of the country. Poslovni reports that because of what they describe as a crisis of trust in the waste management system after scandals involving illegally disposed waste, a number of landfills have limited or stopped accepting waste from other cities and municipalities. Among them are Karepovac, Ploče’s Lovornik, Bjelovar’s Doline, Diklo, and Sodol.
The consequences of the lack of available capacities, they emphasise, are particularly felt by Makarska and the municipalities of the Makarska Riviera, Omiš, Kaštela, Dugi Rat, Zadvarje and Šestanovac, which have been forced to look for alternative landfills, conclude temporary agreements or organise the transport of waste to more distant counties.
Similar difficulties, they note, have also been experienced by Varaždin, Samobor, Jastrebarsko, Josipdol and Plaški, while Otočac, after the closure of the Podum landfill, redirected its waste to the Babina Gora Waste Management Centre.
The association warns that the problem does not affect only municipal waste but also industrial waste, and that public service providers and authorised companies could be left without space for its disposal and treatment. “If public service providers and authorised companies are left without a place for disposal, the waste will not disappear,” they warn, noting that it could end up on the streets, in forests and by rivers, or in overcrowded warehouses where the risk of fire increases.
They are calling on the Ministry and the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund to adopt a binding decision on the acceptance of municipal waste from municipalities that have been left without landfills, and to draw up an urgent plan for the disposal of non-hazardous industrial and hazardous waste.
They are also requesting a check of the contractual obligations of landfills that received Fund resources, with the application of contractual measures, including the return of funds, if it is established that they are refusing to accept waste contrary to the contracts.
They further demand the public disclosure of data on landfills that have free capacities, on the extent of those capacities, and on those that refuse to accept waste. “It is time for decisions, not for politics. Every week in which parties, ministries, counties and cities accuse each other is a week closer to waste on the streets,” said the association’s president, Josip Pavlović.
