At the last session of the Municipal Council, on September 28th 2021, the Council of the Municipality of Sali adopted the Decision on reducing the use of single use plastics for the Municipality of Sali and Institutions and Companies in (co) ownership of the Municipality.
After a two-day workshop in September, as a part of the Association Sunce project “For Plastic Free Croatian Islands”, in the Municipality of Sali were presented the Action Plan and the Decision to reduce plastic pollution, which are now officially adopted at the municipal council.
This Decision prescribes measures which determine that all administrative bodies of the Municipality of Sali and institutions and companies (co)owned by the Municipality need to reduce using of single use plastic by 30% and replace it with more environmentally friendly solutions, in order to prevent and/or reduce the adverse impact of certain plastic products on the environment.
The Municipality of Sali, in accordance with the Action Plan for the Reduction of Plastic Pollution in the Municipality of Sali for the period 2021-2026, to meet the obligations of the Directives of the European Parliament and the Council, also in order to encourage officials and employees of the Municipality, local community and environmental protection and plastic pollution, especially in the marine environment, has adopted the following measures:
- placing containers for separate waste collection (plastic, paper, glass, electronic waste, biowaste, mixed municipal waste, etc.) in appropriate places within institutions and separating waste at the place of origin, whenever possible, as well as ensuring adequate transportation and disposal of all separately collected waste
- digitization of documents and promotion of the use of electronic documents among employees and officials whenever possible
- replacement of single use plastic cups with glass or other reusable cups
- replacement of single use plastic straws with reuse solutions (straws made of alternative materials such as paper, bamboo, steel)
- replacement of single use plastic cutlery and plastic coffee spoons with reusable metal utensils or available alternatives made of natural and biodegradable or compostable materials (wood, paper, fiber, sugar cane, bamboo cane, etc.)
- ensuring the possibility of using reusable cups on coffee and water machines, ie completely eliminating the use of single use plastic cups
- ensuring the supply of beverages and other liquids exclusively in returnable packaging whenever possible
- replacing all single use plastic bags with reusable tote or paper bags whenever possible
- gradual replacement and procurement of office supplies and hygiene supplies without plastic packaging whenever possible
- gradual replacement and procurement of cleaning and personal hygiene products with environmentally friendly ingredients (such as natural cleaning products) and the use of reusable products to reduce the generation of packaging waste.
It is recommended that all public events organized or co-organized, ie financed or co-financed by the Municipality, institutions and companies (co)owned by the Municipality need to be organized in accordance with these measures, and the Municipality is obliged to provide with the organizer of public events separate waste collection, as well as its timely and appropriate removal and disposal.
Also, in the management of the City, institutions and companies, it is now necessary to apply the criteria and benchmarks of green public procurement whenever possible.
The project aims to reduce the use of single use plastic, as well as reduce plastic pollution in the Adriatic and Mediterranean, implementing sustainable waste management based on the principles of reducing, reusing, recycling in the municipality of Sali on Dugi otok and Stari Grad on Hvar.
The project holder is the Association for Nature, Environment and Sustainable Development Sunce, partners are the City of Stari Grad (Island Hvar), Municipality Sali (Island Dugi Otok) and Zelena akcija, and associates SMILO, Initiative for Zlarin without plastic. Project is financed by Beyond Med Association.
The project is supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature, which has already started implementing similar decisions in Dubrovnik and Trogir as part of “Plastic Smart Cities Croatia“.
