CINDERELA workshop in Croatia: Using secondary raw materials in construction – Construction waste - a problem and a challenge at the same time

On the 21th March 2019 a workshop entitled »Using secondary raw materials in construction – Construction waste - a problem and a challenge at the same time« was held by 6.MAJ in Umag, Croatia. During the workshop the project CINDERELA was presented to the local stakeholders, followed by a discussion about the situation in Istria in the field of construction and demolition waste and possibilities of its recovery for the secondary raw materials in construction.

Construction and demolition wastes in Croatia, being one of the CINDERELA pilot areas are intensely generated just like elsewhere in the EU. For its handling, Croatia has adopted appropriate regulations. However, in practice, very specific situation can be found, as only one authorized company for the reception of large quantities of construction and demolition waste for further processing is present in the whole area of Croatian Istria. This stationary recycler is located more than 60 km away from Umag and for this reason does not present solution for the Municipality of Umag and its neighbouring municipalities. Therefore the handling of local construction and demolition waste is usually left to inventiveness of construction contractors. In most cases, these wastes are illegally dumped, also in the natural environment. Investors do not feel responsible for these bad practices. Due to the tourist character of the city, the local community is looking for suitable solutions, such as construction of a landfill where the construction and demolition waste would be legally disposed.

Recycling of future processed construction and demolition waste as new recycled building materials will require a lot of tolerance, communication, assignments and education in the light of today's baseline to achieve the progress.