September the 11th, 2026 – The Croatian Government has put forth its plan to handle the Lika hazardous waste scandal, stating that it will burn 650 tonnes of said waste in cement plants.
The Croatian Government has revealed that it will handle the urgent disposal of around 650 tonnes of waste from the site of the former PPK Velebit in Gospić. This was announced by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković at the beginning of yesterday’s government session. Index reports that the waste will be taken over by two domestic cement plants – Holcim Hrvatska and Nexe – which will energetically recover it, i.e. burn it, within a maximum of 45 days. The value of the job is estimated to stand at a maximum of 357,500 euros.
“When it comes to the hazardous waste in Gospić, we’ve adopted a decision determining the urgent takeover of the removal, transport, recovery or other appropriate waste management procedures for the non-hazardous waste located at the PPK Velebit site. The procedure is carried out for the complete removal of the subject waste from the site, and its lawful and environmentally acceptable disposal,” Plenković revealed.
“we reacted quickly”
The Prime Minister also commented on the failed tender of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund and the revolt of the residents of Zaprešić, where the waste was originally supposed to go for processing.
“After the Fund annulled the decision on the selection of the bidder for the removal of non-hazardous waste that is in bags, the Government, seeing that this procedure… you saw the reaction in Zaprešić, and then we also looked at the amounts of other offers, a decision was made to annul that procedure,” Plenković said.
“However, we reacted lightning-fast in parallel and agreed that two domestic cement plants, Holcim Hrvatska and Nexe, with whom we held talks these days, will be the ones who will carry out this procedure, and that in a total value of a maximum of 357,500 euros, which was also the offer of the company, i.e. the bidder who ultimately withdrew from the job. And that in a very short deadline, the deadline will be a maximum of 45 days,” the Prime Minister added.
This Government decision comes after the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund officially annulled the public procurement procedure for the removal of waste from the so-called big bag sacks in Gospić. The job was awarded on the 2nd of September to the Tabak group from Zaprešić, which offered 357,500 euros excluding VAT. However, the possibility that the waste would end up in Zaprešić caused protests among the general public, after which the company’s director Ivan Tabak withdrew their offer.
The second offer in that tender was that of the joint bidders CE-ZA-R (part of Petar Pripuz’s CIOS group) and Saubermacher-TS. They requested 578,500 euros excluding VAT, which the Fund rejected because the offer exceeded the estimated value of 400,000 euros. By annulling the tender, the state was left without a contractor, so the Government cut the matter short with a direct agreement with the cement plants.
a further 4,500 tonnes of waste still lies in gospić
These 650 tonnes in bags are only a smaller part of the problem in Gospić. At the same location there are still around 4,500 tonnes of scattered waste for which the Fund is conducting a separate tender, estimated at 4.72 million euros excluding VAT. The Tabak group and CIOS’s CE-ZA-R also applied for that job.
Earlier expert reports commissioned by USKOK showed that there are tens of thousands of tonnes of waste at the locations in Gospić. Analyses established high levels of heavy metals such as copper, lead and antimony, while microplastics and dangerous PFAS compounds, known as “forever chemicals”, were found in the groundwater beneath the landfill. Water in the city water supply, according to findings so far, is not contaminated.
