Karepovac Closes Its Doors to Neighbors
The landfill will soon accept exclusively Split's waste, while the construction of the center in Lećevica is delayed until 2028.
The landfill will soon accept exclusively Split's waste, while the construction of the center in Lećevica is delayed until 2028.
Split's Karepovac landfill, as of today, August 7, 2026, no longer accepts mixed municipal waste from surrounding towns and municipalities. The utility company Čistoća d.o.o. has suspended intake due to critically full capacity, as confirmed by the City of Split. The decision was made to preserve the remaining space exclusively for Split's needs.
Saša Ljubičić commented on the situation, warning of the seriousness of the moment. "We are on the brink of a Naples-style scenario. Split's Karepovac no longer takes garbage from surrounding areas. As we announced a year ago, the last sections will fill with Split's waste for perhaps a few more months up to six months, while the gate has been lowered for others. Meanwhile, there's nothing from the waste management center in Lećevica," Ljubičić told Slobodna Dalmacija.
Split's mayor, Tomislav Šuta, confirmed on Thursday that all legal steps have been taken to close Karepovac to local government units that are not users of the city's utility company. "We already have certain announcements, and it's already happening that some towns and municipalities no longer dispose of waste at Karepovac. We expect all others to do the same. We've gone out of our way to accommodate towns and municipalities so they can find alternative solutions as soon as possible," Šuta stated, as reported by DalmacijaDanas.
The mayor emphasized that the goal is for Split to function smoothly in terms of waste disposal until a permanent solution is found. "We want the City of Split to function smoothly in that regard, and within a short time, Karepovac will be intended exclusively for Split," he said.
The key to a long-term solution lies in the Lećevica Waste Management Center, a project that has been delayed for years. Šuta expressed optimism about the recent progress. "What pleases me is that bids for the construction in Lećevica were opened on Friday. The county prefect informed me about it, and we expect a decision to be made as soon as possible to move forward with the second phase of the project," the mayor said.
Despite the opening of bids, estimates suggest the Center could be completed only by 2028. This is a prerequisite for the permanent closure of Karepovac, and until then, the remaining landfill capacity will be preserved exclusively for Split. The mayor appealed to citizens to increase the rate of separate waste collection to extend Karepovac's lifespan.
Saša Ljubičić did not spare political actors either. He claimed that panic prevails within HDZ ranks due to uncertainty about alternative waste locations. "Where to put the garbage from neighboring Split municipalities, where to put Split's garbage, when everyone knows that Lećevica won't be ready for maybe another year and a half, two, three years," Slobodna Dalmacija quoted him as saying.
He specifically addressed the role of the current mayor in the whole story. "The irony is that the current mayor of Split, Tomislav Šuta, also worked at that center. He also bears responsibility for Lećevica not being operational yet," Ljubičić concluded.
