From advent calendars to dispensers, washable diapers and traffic signs. Zero waste is a path on which also Slovenian municipalities went. Let’s see what’s new!
Vrhnika and neighbors from the municipalities of Log Dragomer and Borovnica pay special attention to cooperation with various stakeholders. They strengthen cooperation with educational institutions, and to organizers of events they have already presented the program "Green Guard". In cooperation with Ecologists without Borders they organized a workshop for the organization of events with less waste. The quantities of waste collected are reduced by the DEPO program, through a dispenser for biological cleaning fluids, which was installed to stimulate shopping with its own packaging. The sale of objects from second hand in Re-use centers is promoted through an awareness-raising website linking all three mentioned municipalities under the auspices of the Communal Enterprise Vrhnika.
Positive trends are reported also from the capital, Ljubljana. In five years, the mass of waste collected in collection centers increased by 60%, which indicates a significant improvement in the attitude of users. Due to the increase in the quantities of useful materials, they plan to establish at least two new Re-Use Centers. On average, 150 items were sold in the existing center daily. The Ljubljana Re-use Center has also become richer of a dispenser for cleaning fluids and other products. By the end of 2018, they plan to place three sales units for products without packaging. They actively promote composting: inhabitants took over the full quantity of compost available at the Regional Waste Management Center (764 tons) during a 14-day campaign to distribute free compost. The City of Ljubljana took one more interesting measure – they are renewing used traffic signs. Annually, they restore 150 dirty, overlapped and faded traffic signs instead of buying new ones.
Through awareness, they follow the goals of the zero-waste commitment in Municipality Bled. During the December holidays, an exciting calendar was prepared, which encouraged prudent shopping and reuse. Given that 70% of all waste in Bled is generated by tourists annually, they focus most of their efforts on zero waste tourism. Jumbo poster invites tourists and locals to drink tap water instead of bottled and respect for zero waste measures. The lake in Bled is surrounded by 100 containers for separate collection of waste, which reduced the amount of collected mixed waste to 57%. It is expected that this year the first Re-Use center will be established. Of course, we cannot bypass the recent highlight that the Hotel Ribno is the first zero-waste hotel in Slovenia and is located in Bled.
In Municipality of Slovenske Konjice they established "consultative supervision" and in 2017 inspected 905 containers for waste.
Containers with properly separated waste have been 'rewarded' with the label 'Thank you for properly separating waste' and the containers with incorrectly separated content were labeled 'Incorrectly separated waste'. The latter were re-examined at the next waste collection. Most of the irregularities were recorded in containers in front of multi-apartment buildings. That it is important to lead with example is considered in the local utility company, where all employees receive an initial package of washable diapers upon the arrival of newborn babies.
