Households in the Baranja region will pay 14.5 per cent more for municipal waste collection from 1 August. The new tariff for the public service was unanimously adopted at the meeting of the Baranjska čistoća (Baranja Cleanliness) Assembly held on 15 July, and applies to all local self-government units where the company provides services.
The biggest change concerns the calculation of the variable part of the price, which depends on the number of collections of mixed municipal waste. The company is introducing an incentive model: those who opt for two collections per month and carry out home composting will pay 9.99 euros per month, which Baranjska čistoća highlights as one of the lowest prices in Croatia.
Users with two collections per month who do not compost will pay 11.20 euros, and each additional collection above that will be charged at 3.39 euros. The company published the new tariff on its Facebook profile.
The announcement of the price hike has also triggered political reactions. The SDP city organisation in Beli Manastir claims that the price for four monthly collections without composting has tripled compared to 2017. "This drastic price increase raises a number of questions about the transparency, rationality and quality of management of this municipal company," said Marko Bogatić, president of the city organisation.
From the SDP, it is noted that Baranjska čistoća had 60 employees in 2017, while today it has more than 80, and they remind that the company lost work in the Bilje municipality area along with revenue of several hundred thousand euros. They also point to the calculation of containers in part of multi-apartment buildings, where residents are charged for a 120-litre container despite using shared 1,100-litre containers.
The opposition also disputes the results of waste separation: according to their claims, the rate of separated waste in Beli Manastir is 12 per cent, while the most successful Croatian cities exceed 50 per cent, which is why the city and municipalities pay penalties to the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.
