Silica sand or quartz sand is a mineral resource with a wide variety of application; glass industry, construction and foundry are the most common examples thereof. The Republic of Croatia has reserves of 40 million tons of silica sand and a long tradition of surface mining and processing. The average annual production of raw silica sand in Croatia in the period from 2006 to 2011 amounted to 150 thousand tons. This paper presents cradle to gate LCA results of three different types of beneficiation techniques: electrostatic separation; flotation; gravity concentration. The aim of this research is to identify and quantify the environmental impacts of the silica sand production, to learn the range of the impacts for different processing methods, as well as to identify the major contributors and focus for further process design development.

Waste removal (collection and landfilling) in the Republic of Croatia is the responsibility of the municipalities and local governments in 21 administrative units (counties). They entrust the respective economic activity to 208 private and public companies specialized in waste collection and treatment. Organised waste collection affects 99 % of the population. The mixed waste from households and enterprises is at various frequencies collected at the door (kerbside collection) and transported by truck to a landfill, or processing plant. This article aims to estimate fuel consumption and fuel-related airborne emissions from the collection of mixed municipal waste in Croatia in 2013. The input data and emission results are shown for Croatia and each Croatian county, in total, and relative to the number of inhabitants and mass of collected waste. Annual consumption of diesel for the collection of mixed waste is estimated at 10.6 million litres. At the county level, fuel consumption ranges from 87 thousand litres to 2.2 million litres, on average 504 thousand litres per county. Total emission of CO 2 is estimated at 28 000 t, which at county level ranges from 231 to 5711 t. Relative emission ranges from 3.3 to 13 kg CO 2 per capita (average 6.6 kg per capita), or 8.6-28.1 kg t −1 of municipal waste (average 17 kg CO 2 per ton of municipal waste). The average values of CO 2 emission from MSW collection that should also be the target values are 7-9 kg for mixed waste, and 8-15 kg CO 2 for separate waste streams. Apart from CO 2 emission, this research estimates emission of other, diesel combustion related compounds, such as NO x , CO, lubricant related

The objective of this paper is the study of the life cycle inventory (LCI) for underground mining of small, clustered deposits of Dinaric Alps-type bauxites, mined in the mountains near Jajce, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the period 2010-2020. Modelling of the life cycle inventory was done based on the company’s internal reports and project documentation for a variant of the sublevel caving method that involves drilling and blasting. Four mines, located on three exploitation fields, were found in different phases of mine life, different levels of tectonic disturbances and different types of energy: diesel, electricity, and compressed air. The main results of this study are the inventory of underground bauxite exploitation made based on long-term data, the life cycle of one bauxite deposit, and the emission factors from blasting. Underground mining in this case proved to be energy intensive: an average of 52-92 MJ/t was required (as opposed to 37 MJ/t for surface bauxite exploitation in Italy). At the same time, underground bauxite exploitation caused only 5.6-6.4% of the transformation of natural land that is above the mines and deposits. The operations relying on diesel fuel caused local emissions in the air and underground. The operation relying on electricity for DC locomotive and generation of the compressed air were without local emission into the air, although energy efficiency was probably reduced using compressed air as mechanical energy. At the state level, the impact depends on the country’s energy mix, which is still quite dependent on fossil fuels. Engineering estimates of blasting emissions indicated detonators and ammonium nitrate explosives as a potentially important source of environmental impact. The mining industry would significantly benefit from cleaner energy in electricity generation (the energy sector) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The path of air emissions in the underground system, especially lead and nitrogen compounds, needs to be further explored.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is generated in households and enterprises because of everyday human consumption. The quantity (volume) of municipal solid waste depends on the number of consumers, i.e. population. Everyday consumption depends on consumers' available money for consumption -more money available to spend, more waste is generated from consumption. Consumers' ability to produce their own food, to feed domestic animals with food residue, and to destroy waste or compost it with no especial eff orts or costs (in rural and suburban households), contributes to a weaker correlation of the rural population with waste generated. The urban population, characterized by a higher income and employment rate is correlated strongly with waste generated. Non-residents and visitors such as tourists also contribute to the generation of waste. All these elements of waste generation can be shown with corresponding parameters. In the testing of the waste generation hypothesis, the parameters are tested for correlations with the generated quantity of waste, promoting the parameters into potential variables for the waste model. The second step in waste modelling is to inspect how the proposed model variables correlate among them and to select the most appropriate candidates for the model. That step is performed in research described in this article. A total of 16 variables were grouped into fi ve groups: county descriptive variables, total population variables, rural/urban population related, additional population and economy related variables. These groups are found to be correlated among each other. From each group, the appropriate representatives are proposed: length of roads, population or households, households with and without land, tourist stays at tourist accommodation, and annual income of the county. It was concluded that the latter should be modelled to represent the real income structure of the population. The sampling unit of the data for this research was the administrative unit county. It was concluded that the special administrative unit County of the City of Zagreb should, for modelling purposes, be considered as part of the County of Zagreb.