March the 15th, 2024 – Krk island is proving to be a shining example of environmental care and above all – recycling – to others across the country.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, we might claim to be all about caring for our planet, but are we truly aware of our responsibility towards the sea? What is nothing but pointless waste for some, is an excellent raw material for production for very many others. In order to contribute to a cleaner marine environment, the Ponikve Communal Society from Krk island is engaged in giving as much discarded plastic as possible a “new life”.
Three years ago, as part of the wider European Inoplastici project, the Krk communal society first started the story of local plastic waste recycling. All of the plastic being used for this purpose on Krk island has been collected on the beach and the sea, the same sea we all like to bang on about being “the most beautiful in the world”.
“On the surface, the Croatian Adriatic Sea does look really clean, but we can always find various types of plastic floating around while walking along the shore,” Dejan Kosić, technical director of KD Ponikve Krk, told HRT, adding that “there is really a lot of plastic and the tide washes it up onto the shore and beaches every day, meaning that each and every day you can walk along and fill a new bag,”
Everything collected by the employees of the communal company on Krk island, with the help of volunteers and environmental associations, is duly recycled in Croatian facilities. Sent off to Vrbovac, the waste plastic is readily turned into granules that then travel to the mainland, and then inland, to Delnice, where waste plastic products are made.
“We wanted to tell a story and prove that something that had been thrown onto the beach could be made into a useful item again,” explained Kosić.
Approximately 600 bins for waste separation were also distributed, sent to Krk island’s elementary schools. 10,000 bags were also used as part of commendable volunteer actions. Technological solutions and ideas for the reuse of plastic do exist, but the basis of everything is education and raising awareness levels.
“In my opinion, the solution would be for us all to deal with plastic waste together and to think about what we’re buying and how we intend to dispose of that plastic later on when we’re done with the product. My responsibility doesn’t end with me just throwing that plastic in the bin. I and others need to be careful with how we’re going to dispose of it, whether we’re going to place it in the correct container so that the utility company can properly dispose of it, and only then does our responsibility end,” Kosić pointed out.
Research shows that in 30 years, if we continue to see the sea as a bin, there will be more plastic in it than fish stocks. Who knows what will be caught on the fishing hooks of some future generations – perhaps Fanta bottles and chocolate wrappers.
Krk island and its praiseworthy example will hopefully set a trend for others up and down the coastline and on Croatia’s very many islands as far as recycling goes, and work to permanently alter the human relationship with plastic.
