The Plastic Smart City of Dubrovnik has formally adopted the first plan of actions to tackle its plastic pollution by 2026, including key measures to reduce waste production and improve waste collection and disposal.
The Plan signed by Mayor Mato Franković was developed in collaboration with the Association for Nature, Environment and Sustainable Development Sunce and WWF, as part of the Plastic Smart Cities Initiative the Dubrovnik joined in August last year.
The city has committed to take measures and actions that will reduce its amount of disposed plastic waste by 30% in a pilot area by 2022, and by 55% at the city level by 2025. This will be achieved by implementing a separate door-to-door waste collection system in the urban settlements of Zaton Veliki, Zaton Mali, Štikovica and Bosanka. In 2019, the total amount of municipal waste generated in Dubrovnik-Neretva County was 57.469 t, of which 47.167 tonnes was separately collected municipal waste. The amount of separately collected plastic waste was 617 tonnes.
The Plan also includes measures to improve the collection and disposal of compostable and biodegradable plastic waste, as well as designing, financing and implementation of a Reuse Center in the city of Dubrovnik. The Action Plan also includes the adoption of legal measures for limiting the use of disposable plastics for all public events (co)organized or (co)financed by the City of Dubrovnik by the end of the year, and the use of disposable plastic in all public companies and institutions in Dubrovnik by May this year.
With the Action Plan for the reduction of plastic pollution, the City of Dubrovnik has taken the next big step within the WWF global initiative called “Plastic Smart Cities”, which aims to reduce plastic leakage into nature by 2030. Other Mediterranean and European cities, like Nice, Izmir, Tangier, Amsterdam and Venice are also part of the initiative.
