Slovenia experiences collapse of waste management system
Ljubljana, 17 December - The country was hit this year by an unprecedented waste management crisis, which included scenes with thousands of tonnes of plastic waste accumulated in the yards of municipal waste collection firms and even in one case on a meadow bought for storage purposes by a waste processing company.
Ljubljana
Packaging waste piling up at the Ljubljana waste management facility, the biggest recycling plant in the country.
Photo: Anže Malovrh/STA
The crisis was caused by a combination of factors, including China's ban on plastic waste imports, increased competition among private waste management companies, and a more than 50% gap between the share of packaging waste costs covered by producers and the total amount handled by waste management companies.
This gap, a result of producers underreporting output and of Slovenian law exempting companies producing less than 15 tonnes of plastic waste from the polluter pays principle, was challenged successfully by one of the waste management companies at the beginning of the year at the Administrative Court, which relieved waste management firms of the duty to also accept waste not paid for by companies using packaging.
While public waste collection companies demanded immediate emergency measures, a tug-of-war ensued between the state and waste management companies over the costs. The latest development was a November emergency bill that tasks the Environment Ministry with selecting waste management providers that will accept and process the waste at the cost of up to EUR 120 per tonne.
Under the bill, still subject to parliament's approval, the state would first cover the costs but would then try to reclaim them back from the provider. A more comprehensive long-term solution was announced as part of a new environmental protection bill planned for 2019.