How the illegal dumping of toxic waste in a Croatian town sparked national calls for clean-up

After years of illegal mass flytipping in Gospić, fed-up residents decided to take matters into their own hands “Gospić is our home,” Željka Šikić shouted to a crowd of 40,000 people outside the Croatian parliament earlier this month.

The slogan is the name of a campaign she helped to set up to protest against the illegal dumping of waste in Gospić, a town in the mountainous Lika region of central Croatia. Between 2022 and 2024, waste was illegally…