Considering that the most popular media in Dalmatia has their tied hands when it comes to the criticisms of some private companies which is proved by their articles because of the Marxist relations, we consider we are obliged to give a slightly less pink look to the views expressed during the conference “Waste management” to the citizens of Split and its surroundings .
The conference was held on Wednesday, November 26, 2014, at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy in Split, organized by the University of Split and the mentioned faculty, with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection.

The aim of the conference was to provide an insight into the plans for the implementation of the waste management system, as well as waste treatment of valuable raw materials, with an emphasis on the area of Split-Dalmatia County.
Within the main theme of the waste management system in the Split-Dalmatia County, primary selection, future landfills, use of waste fuel in industry and waste management center in the Split-Dalmatia County were to be discussed.

The Sunce Association attended the conference as a visitor and we can state that we have been listening to a series of presentations, but no discussion has been made available to us. Visitors including directors of utility companies, heads of the county environmental management departments, representatives of the Chamber of Commerce attended again a meeting dedicated to the theory of responsible waste management but did not have the capability to react, to ask concrete questions and perhaps find solutions for waste management in the Split-Dalmatia County. In other words, we participated in a classical ex-cathedra lecture without the right to participate.

For example, we could hear from Mr. Sven Muller, Director of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, that as much as 80% of Croatian citizens have the primary waste selection possible!

We wonder why such information is being reported in a county that is extremely unsuccessful in the separate collection of waste and where the local government is still unaware of the obligations imposed on it by the EU and the possible financial penalties if they are not implemented?

Almost all other participants advocated for burning waste in incinerators and cement plants for obtaining heat and electricity and accidentally forgetting to mention and emphasize:
– that cement plants, as opposed to incinerators, do not have any filters to hold heavy metals, especially mercury, dioxins and furans as the most problematic substances in these processes
– that by burning waste in cement plants, citizens will not get heating for their flats but the corporation will profit from it, and they will most probably charge the citizens for this “service”
– that by incineration you will get a byproduct of slag that needs to be deferred again
– that incinerators need to continuously be supplied with fuels and are thus in opposition to responsible waste management.

Irena Relić from the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection commented on the respect of waste management priorities, amongst other things, and the prevention of waste generation and claimed that one of the objections of the European Commission was that we did not sufficiently access this measure. All these points confirm the misinterpretation of most exhibitors themselves about the essence of sustainable waste management.
On the roundtable “The future of waste management in the Split-Dalmatia County” organized within the conference, all the same people were sitting, and questions were raised by the moderator, journalist Mariola Milardović Perić, with almost no knowledge of the complex waste management theme, which she confirmed by herself as well. Such a roundtable can be organized for the wider public but not for waste management stakeholders who were gathered as visitors to the conference.

It is interesting to note that the exhibitors of almost all the lectures discussed the participation and public involvement which the organizers at this conference skillfully avoided. Namely, the participants’ questions were received hostesses on pre-prepared forms and responded to them at the end of the conference when most participants, as well as journalists, had already fled.
The exhibitors also provided replies that could not be commented, so that the discussion was not raised in any way as it was mentioned in the aims of the conference. It is promised that the answers will be available on the website of the organizer of the conference, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy. Answers, however, have not yet emerged until today.

We wonder what is the purpose of the promotion of this incineration in the cement plants and when will someone finally sit down and talk to organize sustainable waste management in the Split-Dalmatia County to end the irresponsible waste disposal in the already overburdened Karepovac.