Wednesday, 24. 4. 2013

Alterations in waste collection and removal

The Snaga public company has introduced changes in domestic refuse collection and removal across the City of Ljubljana.

In 2012 and 2013, Snaga has been bringing fundamental changes and upgrades into its waste collection and removal system. The central objective of these changes is to provide for a greater share of separated waste collection. With (additional) receptacles for packaging that Snaga distributed to households in 2012, and receptacles for paper, which were put out across the City of Ljubljana up to spring 2013, they are attempting to make it easier for all users to separate their rubbish and to encourage those that don’t separate their waste to do so.

It is a major project, as in the City of Ljubljana and nine surrounding local authorities they have distributed about 60,000 new containers. There is also a new concept in refuse removal, with the main change being less frequent removal of residual (non-sorted) waste.

The central starting point for these changes is the provisions of the EU Waste Framework Directive. This Directive commits member states to ensuring that by 2020 they recycle 50% of municipal waste, and Snaga estimates that to hit this target it will be necessary to ensure that 70% by volume of all municipal waste collected is separated (today, across the territory in which Snaga operates, separated waste accounts for just over 45% of the total).

The foundation for these changes is thus legislation, while an important reason for introducing a system for packaging and paper collection for domestic users was analysis of the waste found in the typical container for unsorted waste. Snaga’s precise monitoring of waste content ascertained that receptacles for unsorted waste contained a huge amount of packaging material (more than 70% by volume) and significant amounts of paper and organic material.

In the last year, the fill of black containers for unsorted waste has been reduced on average by half. The explanation for this lies mainly in the containers for packaging received by households in 2012, where residents have ‘redirected’ their packaging materials which used to end up in the black containers. Due to the reduced fill and associated separation (mainly by those that live in houses), as of 1 April 2013 Snaga has introduced a second major step in adapting the waste collection and removal system. They have changed the removal schedule. From now on, unsorted waste and packaging in areas dominated by individual houses (mainly this is places outside the motorway ring road in the City of Ljubljana) and in surrounding local authorities will be removed every three weeks. In areas dominated by apartment blocks (mainly those areas within the motorway ring road) waste will be removed weekly.

You can find out more about these developments on Snaga’s website.