Critical analysis of the normative framework on waste management in the City of Zagreb and Croatia

Abstract

Waste management systems are becoming one of the key communal neuralgic points of modern society, and the problem is especially escalating in urban centers. Waste can be associated with a number of environmental and public health risks, and inadequate waste management can negatively affect the realization of fundamental human rights, as well as seriously impair the quality of life. This paper focuses on the normative dimension of the waste management system in the city of Zagreb and the Republic of Croatia. The analysis is based on the idea that universally accepted social values are transferred, or should be transferred, to social norms. The paper, therefore, examines the normative acts that thematize waste and regulate its handling through the method of qualitative content analysis. A total of nine key normative documents at three normative levels (European Union, Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb) are studied. These documents are not only of different levels but are also of different types (strategies, plans, directives, laws). Their comparative analysis led to several relevant conclusions. Firstly, the city of Zagreb and Croatian normative documents are deduced from European ones, and to a certain extent they are literally copied. A comparative analysis established that the Croatian normative framework is not consistent. The outdated strategy and the resulting law do not consider the latest European trends in terms of the circular economy and sustainable waste management, so there is a kind of hybrid, unsustainable model.