We have opened a treatment plant for leachate cleansing constructed within the framework of an upgrade to the Ljubljana Regional Waste Management Centre (RCERO).

On Tuesday 6 July 2010 Dr Roko Žarnić, Slovenian Minister for the Environment and Spatial Planning, Zoran Janković, Mayor of the City of Ljubljana, Zdenka Grozde, Director of Ljubljana Public Holdings, d.o.o., and Janko Kramžar, Director of Snaga Ljubljana d.o.o., attended the opening ceremony of the treatment plant for leachate cleansing at the Ljubljana Barje landfill site for non-hazardous waste.

The facility is part of an approximately €144 million project, with €77.5 million co-financed by the European Union’s Cohesion Fund, which is unprecedented cohesion funding for a Slovenian environmental project.

The upgrade of Ljubljana Regional Waste Management Centre eliminates a variety of problems that, although modern technologically, could not be efficiently dealt with by the existing waste disposal facilities:

• the problem of water leaching from the landfill, a potential source of contamination of groundwater and water sources;
• the problem of the release of greenhouse gases, particularly environmentally damaging methane;
• the problem of unpleasant odours, produced by the breakdown of organic biodegradable (BIO) waste and
• the problem of the lack of space at the Barje landfill caused by the increasing quantities of unprocessed waste being disposed of there.

The upgrade of RCERO facilities represents only a minimal interference to the Barje local environment as it has been carefully planned and all laws and restrictions imposed by European and Slovenian legislation in the field of environmental protection and waste disposal have been adhered to during construction.

The project comprises three major parts: the construction of a new area for the disposal of non-hazardous waste, cleansing facilities for water leachate and waste processing facilities. The cleansing facilities and the disposal area have already been built, while for the third, most demanding part, namely the construction of waste treatment facilities, the selection of a contractor is currently ongoing.

The cleansing equipment for water leachate went into a trial phase in March 2010, and the anticipated start of regular operation is in January 2011. The new area for the disposal of non-hazardous waste has been in regular operation since September 2009, while the start of the trial phase of the operation of the waste treatment facilities is foreseen for December 2014 with regular operations commencing in December 2015.

For project implementation there will be contributions of:

• the Cohesion Fund contributed 65.88% of the required funding (€77,571,941);
• 14% of funding came from the budget of the Slovenian Government (€16,495,257);
• 10.11% of funding was obtained from environmental taxes for pollution of the environment caused by waste disposal (€11,899,770);
• 10% from the budgets of the investor and co-investor (€11,774,108).

With this upgrade of the Ljubljana Regional Waste Management Centre (RCERO):

• we will prevent the pollution of groundwater and water sources at Ljubljana Barje by water leachate;
• we will reduce six-fold the amount of waste landfilled;
• we will meet the requirements of the EU on the reduction of the proportion of organic, biodegradable (BIO) waste disposed of;
• we will obtain green electricity from renewable biogas;
• we will reduce the release of greenhouse gases, particularly methane;
• we will obtain compost for use in gardening and on city green spaces;
• we will obtain solid fuel from waste.

This common project of the City of Ljubljana, 23 local authorities from the broader Central Slovenian Region and the Snaga company amounts to a solution to the problem of waste management in the Central Slovenian Region in the most modern and technologically sophisticated manner and at reasonable cost to users of the waste management service.

The RCERO upgrade will thus enable rational, economical and environmentally sound waste management for the City of Ljubljana and the municipalities of Brezovica, Dobrova-Polhov Gradec, Dol pri Ljubljani, Horjul, Ig, Medvode, Škofljica, Velike Lašče, Domžale, Kamnik, Komenda, Trzin, Lukovica, Moravče, Vodice, Mengeš, Grosuplje, Ivančna Gorica, Dobrepolje, Ribnica, Loški Potok, Sodražica and Cerklje na Gorenjskem.

More on the RCERO upgrade project can be found at their website.