Sustainable waste management: Croatia and Sweden comparison

U 21. stoljeću, suočeni smo s činjenicom da se svijet nekontrolirano i rapidno razvija, te čovjek kao glavni akter ostavlja pozitivne i negativne posljedice na svijet u kojem živi. Budući da sve veći broj svjetske populacije živi u urbanim sredinama, stvaraju se abnormalne količine otpada sa štetnim utjecajima na okoliš. Čovjek kao tehnološki i kreativno razvijeno biće nalazi, te u budućnosti mora nastaviti nalaziti, nove načine za adekvatnim i ekološki prihvatljivim gospodarenjem tim otpadom. Posljednjih desetljeća osobito se razvijaju nove tehnologije u gospodarenju otpadom, te je čovjek postao svjestan svog štetnog utjecaja i nužnosti za recikliranjem otpada koji proizvede. Ovaj znanstveni rad naglašava važnost gospodarenja otpadom za očuvanje zdravlja današnjih i budućih generacija, uz istovremeno educiranje o različitim mogućnostima i novim tehnologijama. Ono što je u fokusu samog rada jest usporedba Hrvatske, zemlje koja trenutno drži nisku poziciju na listi europskih zemalja po količini recikliranog otpada, i Švedske, koja je došla do toliko visoke razine recikliranja i dobivanja energije iz otpada da isti mora uvoziti kako bi održala istu razinu proizvedene energije. Glavna prepreka istraživanju svakako je bio nedostatak adekvatne literature, te nedovoljno praćenje tj. monitoring propisanih zakona. No ipak, pozitivno je što se hrvatski građani i čelnici polako bude iz zimskog sna te počinju shvaćati važnost postavljanja zelenih temelja budućim generacijama.In 21st century, we are faced with the fact that the world is evolving rapidly and with no signs of stopping, and the population leaves positive as well as negative impacts on it. Judging by the fact that more and more of world's population lives in an urban area, abnormal amount of waste is being produced. All said ha san enormous impact on the world's environment. Humans as technologically advanced and creative beings are seeking, and must seek in the years to come, new ways for adequate and ecologically acceptable waste management. In the last few decades, mankind has invented all kinds of new and green technologies in waste management, and world's population has gradually become aware of it's negative impact within this domain. This scientific pape enhances the importance od sustainable waste maagement, not only for the sake of this generation, but for the sake of health and wellbeing of future ones. At the same time, the paper focuses on educating about different possibilities and new technologies. What's also the main focus in the paper is comparison of Croatia, a country that currently holds one of the lowest positions on the list of european countries by the amount of recycled waste, and Sweden, that reached such high levels of recycling and reusing the waste for energy production that it has to import some of the waste so it could keep the same energy production levels. Main obstacle during the conduction of the research was inadequate amount of literature in Croatian, as well as lack of nation-wide monitoring after the implementation of certain waste management laws or regulations. On the other hand, it's positive to know that Croatian citizens and political leaders are slowly beginning to realize the importance of setting „green“ and ecologically acceptable foundations for future generations