"Circular economy" to create new jobs in Croatia: environment minister
Xinhua, March 20, 2015 Adjust font size:
Croatian Environmental and Nature Protection Minister Mihael Zmajlovic said on Thursday waste disposal industry would create around 12,000 new jobs for the country.
Speaking at an international waste management conference, Zmajlovic said Croatia would start systematic waste management on all its 300 waste dumps, called "circular economy" which would bring around 12,000 new jobs.
The new jobs in the section would grow for 25 percent in a 5-year-long period, he added.
In "circular economy", the waste from one industry would serve as raw material for another instead of be just disposed on dumps, according to him.
The European Commission estimated that "circular economy" could bring 400,000 new working places in Europe by 2020.
Zmajlovic said some 5 billion Croatian kunas (695 million U.S. dollars) worth of raw materials were buried as waste instead of reused in Croatia.
Croatia has reserved around 5 billion kunas to construct 13 waste management centres, he said.
Besides decreasing the volume of waste, Croatia mapped at least 50 percent of gathered paper, glass, plastic and metal to be reuse by 2020.
The country has invested 2.5 billion kunas in waste management projects in last two and half years, according to Zmajlovic. (1 U.S. dollar = 7.19 Croatian kuna) Endit