Experiences in asbestos-containing waste management in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of asbestos production data worldwide and in the Republic of Croatia in the period 2000 to 2018 as well as the asbestos consumption data from 1995 to 2010. The results of asbestos waste collection from 1995 to 2018 have been analyzed and the experiences of the Republic of Croatia in the management of asbestos-containing waste have been described in accordance with the applicable national legislation. Although asbestos does not pose a risk if its products do not become damaged by fracture, or during transportation or decomposition, it poses a potential danger to human health. In today's world, every five minutes someone dies from a disease related to asbestos, such as asbestosis and cancer caused by asbestos. For these reasons, most countries adopted the obligation to execute a series of measures to stop using asbestos in 1999, while at the same time in the Republic of Croatia still imported about 4000 tonnes of asbestos per year. In 2006, the Republic of Croatia banned the production, transport, and use of asbestos, and the asbestos objects whose lifetime expired ended up in municipal waste, causing the need for special regulations in order to arrange the management of asbestos containing waste. Over the past ten years, the Republic of Croatia has developed an asbestos waste management system. Regardless of the success of its application, certain improvements are needed, as data on the amounts of reported construction waste, and thus the part containing asbestos, do not coincide with economic and other indicators for the construction sector.