The draft Waste Management Bill, for which public consultation closed recently, includes a proposal which in the present circumstances of the pandemic and economic crisis could cost Croatia another 800 jobs in about 30 small and medium enterprises, and in regions that cannot afford it at all, such as Slavonia and Sisak, the HGK said in a statement earlier this week.
The bill provides for a ban on the placing on the market of single-use plastics and lightweight plastic bags.
Croatia is required to incorporate the EU's Single-Use Plastics Directive into its own legislation. The HGK notes, however, that the Directive does not require a ban on lightweight plastic bags, as proposed by the bill, but that its aim is to reduce the impact of certain plastic products on the environment and promote the transition to innovative and sustainable business models.
The HGK has therefore suggested introducing an HGK label for plastic bags of between 15 and 50 microns in thickness containing recycled material. The HGK label would guarantee recycled content in lightweight plastic bags.
The label would be awarded to producers and importers of lightweight bags who incorporate this aggregate into their final products as well as to recyclers who produce secondary aggregates, the HGK said, adding that the system could be fully functioning by July 2021.
Under the HGK's proposal, any lightweight plastic bags without recycled content, that is those not displaying the HGK label, would be banned.
Since a technology determining the percentage of recycled content in the final product is not available at this point, the main criterion for awarding the HGK label would be the principle of traceability of the material, the HGK said. It added that it would develop criteria for the award of the HGK label in cooperation with the academic community, notably the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture and the Faculty of Chemical Engineering.