Tens of thousands of people in Croatia took to the streets of Zagreb on 5^th September to rally against illegally dumped hazardous waste that has not been cleared.

The civic initiative “Gospic is Our Home” organised the event and demanded the urgent clean-up of illegally dumped waste buried near the town of Gospic in the Lika region. The waste includes electronic equipment parts, plastics, construction materials, and medical waste. Police and Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, arrested 13 people in February 2025 who were suspected of illegally importing and dumping hazardous waste.

The protestors asked authorities to develop a clear plan to urgently clean up the waste and to ban waste imports.

The Croatian anti-corruption agency, USKOK, which is investigating illegal waste dumping, released case materials after significant public interest. These materials include a report from the Croatian Institute of Public Health showing PFAS were detected in groundwater samples taken near the site in Gospic.

PFAS are a group of around 10,000 chemicals often referred to as ‘forever chemicals’ as they are highly persistent and take generations to break down in the environment. They are used in industrial manufacturing and in a wide range of consumer products due to their ability to repel both grease and water. Exposure to some PFAS has been linked with adverse health impacts, including certain cancers, reduced fertility, and the disruption of the immune system.

The EU is currently considering a universal ban on PFAS that would restrict PFAS as a group rather than one by one. CHEM Trust supports this approach, as regulating PFAS individually is ineffective and only a comprehensive, group-based restriction that includes all consumer and industrial uses can solve the PFAS pollution crisis. Read our blog on the universal PFAS ban here.

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