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4 lessons from Croatia’s zero waste island


Krk Town, Island of Krk, Croatia

By Sarah Currie-Halpern, Co-Founder and Partner


This October, the Croatian island Krk (pronounced Kirk) was granted the rare designation of a Zero Waste island by Zero Waste Europe. It is the first island in Croatia to earn the title and only the second in the world behind Tilos, Greece, which became the first in August 2023.


Although non-Croatians may not be overly familiar with it, Krk is no remote island far off the Mediterranean coast. It’s the largest and most populous of the Croatian islands with roughly 20,000 inhabitants living in 68 villages. Beautiful beaches, a warm climate, several hundreds of kilometers of trails, traditional festivals, and centuries-old churches sustain a profitable tourism sector, with government officials recording more than 5 million individual overnight stays on the island last year.


It’s no small thing for an island this big and this popular among tourists to attain a Zero Waste certification. It took several years, a number of steps, and a great deal of effort. Ponikve, Krk’s local waste management company, took charge by collaborating directly with Zero Waste Croatia. By successfully implementing Zero Waste Croatia’s recommendations, Ponikve was instrumental in qualifying Krk as a Zero Waste Candidate in 2021, then in Krk receiving the certification as a Zero Waste Island this autumn.


Islands like Manhattan, Mount Desert, Majorca, or Maui may all be a long way off from achieving a similar zero waste status, but Krk’s strategies are relevant well beyond the waves of the Adriatic. The Croatian island’s success story is full of local lessons with global potential. Here are four of them:


  1. Prioritize mixed waste analysis


Krk’s municipalities were already below the national average in producing less mixed waste per capita, but officials recognized there was still room for improvement. To do so, they established an expert council for waste management with representatives from the local community and utility companies. Analysis and discussion about the composition of mixed municipal waste was an indispensable step in taking the steps necessary to reduce it.


  1. Invest in circular economy infrastructure and incentivize citizens


Waste reduction is a joint effort between individuals and institutions, and neither can go unsupported or overlooked in order for the process to succeed. Krk’s initial top-down approach included investing heavily in circular economy infrastructure, and the island is now serviced by a sorting plant, a composting plant, and seven recycling yards. To support this development from the bottom up, Krk instituted a volume-based fee system to discourage unnecessary disposal on among individuals.


Composting pile with food scraps being added to plant trimmings
  1. Encourage composting


Composting is one of the oldest and best tools in the waste reduction tool kit, and it worked wonders as part of Krk’s waste reduction strategy. Residents received home composters and were educated on how to use them, and Mother Nature did the rest.


  1. Address the region’s specific needs


Tourism is a major industry for Krk, and tourists make up a significant portion of the population during the warmer months. In order to achieve zero waste status, Krk officials had to address tourism-related waste head-on through a relevant impact study. The cities, islands, and regions that will be most successful in reducing waste are those that understand their industries’ needs and waste production patterns, and implement strategies specific to them.

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