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Strategic Communication Related to Environmental and Packaging Challenges: Case of Beverage and Dairy Industry in Croatia

Environmental protection has recently become one of the most important issues. European Union (EU) has set clear directives for applicant countries that they must enforce. This paper analyzes the implementation of EU directives concerning packaging waste with the emphasis on communication efforts done by relevant institutions in Croatia. Recycling in Croatia, in limited form, existed during the socialism era and by late 1980s, first containers for the collection of used glass appeared, but all the activities were stopped in the early 1990s as a result of war operations. The activities resumed in the mid 1990s with the introduction of new environmental laws. As part of a harmonization of the legal system with the EU, Croatia recently introduced a number of environmental laws based on European Community (EC) directive 94/62/EC and its amendments 2004/12/EC and 2005/20/EC. After the initial failure in the 1990s, the situation dramatically changed with the introduction of the new Regulations on packaging and packaging waste which presented a new packaging recycling and recovery deposit system managed by the government agency. The new deposit system introduced a system consisting of environmental fees and a deposit stimulating the use of returnable packaging with the setting of specific returnable packaging quotas for different product categories. The introduction of the new Regulations was, with no doubt, quite an opportunity for the Croatian government to start an educational program for Croatian consumers in order to change public environmental consciousness and improve the acceptance of the new deposit system. However, the whole educational and informational role had been passed to the mass media journalists. The new deposit system became a front side story for many Croatian magazines, newspapers and TV stations which sometimes ended with misinterpretations. Overall quality of news published during the first few months of the new deposit system was not at the right level. Despite public appearances and statements of environmental minister and ministry secretaries, there had been a vast number of misleading information present in the mass media. It is quite unclear why the government and especially the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction did not organise a public campaign in order to present the new environmental legislation to broader public. Journalists’ lack of professionalism also facilitated confusion and problems concerning consumers’ perception of environmental consciousness.

environment; communication; beverage industry; dairy industry

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