Construction waste on private parcel

Through the Green Ecological Phone company Krka - Knin we received the report from the citizen of Knin via the Green Phone of the Ecological Company Krka on the disposal of construction waste (mostly old asphalt) on a private parcel as a result of the construction i.e. reconstruction of state road Tomislavova in Knin.

We point out that the contractor of the said road disposed of waste on several private parcels in Knin. The said place of the disposal of construction waste is located on the edge of the Red Lake near Knin. Waste disposal interrupted the natural basin of rainwater and buries the existing drainage channel, and there is a threat of flooding the adjacent parcels.

The following authorities were informed: Building Inspection, Directorate for Inspectional Affairs - Sector for inspectional supervision of the environment, the city of Knin (municipal services monitoring officer), Hrvatske ceste. We received the feedback from the Directorate for Inspectional Affairs which submitted the case to the City of Knin o act within its competence in accordance with the provisions of Article 36, paragraph 3 of the Act on Sustainable Waste Management. The City of Knin (municipal services monitoring officer) also responded and stated in the letter that it is not a case of infilling the “old asphalt” but plain earth and that they cannot act upon this complaint. This is one of many examples of “passing the buck” i.e. refusing to resolve the case due to jurisdiction, but it is also possible that the contractor removed the disputable construction waste when it heard about the report.

The party failed to give us any feedback. Otherwise, Ordinance on Construction Waste Management provides the following in Article 5:
(1) Construction waste cannot be disposed of at the place of origin nor on locations that are not intended for it.
(2) The owner of construction waste shall bear all the costs of construction waste management. Article 11 reads as follows: (2)  (1) Counties and the City of Zagreb are obliged to determine the location for the management of construction waste in their area within six months from the date of entry into force of this Ordinance. (2) City of Zagreb and local government units are obliged to ensure taking over of construction waste from their territory through recycling yards. These articles as well as the Ordinance itself are rarely complied with because construction waste often ends up in open dumps and private parcels, and only a few counties and local government units have ensured that the Ordinance is implemented.