Lower taxes for people who recycle in this Croatian town

Šibenik authorities are trying to reduce waste costs together with pollution

This week, the Croatian city of Šibenik announced a new policy that aims to coax more citizens to recycle their waste. With the new waste regulations, people who regularly recycle their waste will have a lower waste collection tax, but just a few mistakes can remove that reduced status for the next tax year.

Local authorities have pointed out that this is a cornerstone of their Green City policy and will help reduce pollution and emissions through the waste that ends up in landfills unnecessarily.

Financial incentives for recycling

Šibenik authorities have said that they will accept separations into biowaste, recyclable waste, bulky and hazardous municipal waste, mixed municipal waste and, if possible, biowaste composting. Households will need to take extra care to make sure that they do not mix up the categories if they want to be eligible for the tax cut.

Additionally, those who have been found to breach the separation rules more than three times within a given year will lose the tax cut for a period of 12 months, starting from the last violation. Furthermore, there are additional benefits if a household is able to produce less than 240 litres of waste.

According to an official statement, the tax cut can also apply to renters, as well as craftsmen and small businesses and can lead to a waste tax reduction of around 30%-50%. With this, local authorities are trying to create clear financial incentives to boost recycling.

Moreover, with households doing all that pre-separation, the cost of waste disposal for the Šibenik municipality will also go down, which will justify the tax reduction.

Mayor Željko Burić was quoted in a press statement, explaining that the measure would also start local businesses off on their path towards sustainability and help the city increase anti-pollution measures.