The traditional spring cleaning campaign ‘For a More Beautiful Ljubljana 2012’ runs in Ljubljana from 22 March to 22 April 2012.

The basic goal of the For a More Beautiful Ljubljana 2012 campaign is to give a thorough spring clean to functional areas across the City of Ljubljana, and those taking part include Departments within the City Administration, the City’s District Authorities, public companies united within Ljubljana Public Holdings, City of Ljubljana public institutes and various Ljubljana societies.

As part of the For a More Beautiful Ljubljana 2012 campaign, the City of Ljubljana has joined forces with a cleaning campaign run by Ecology without Borders entitled ‘We’re Cleaning Slovenia 2012’, which runs throughout Slovenia on Saturday 24 April 2012. The City of Ljubljana has earmarked €240,000 for the removal and disposal of waste collected in this campaign. The Saturday cleaning campaign is also to be joined by staff from the City of Ljubljana, who are to clean up areas of Tivoli Park, the Koseze Marshes area and Rožnik, while staff from City of Ljubljana public institutes and companies will be cleaning the areas around the headquarters of their institutes and companies. City of Ljubljana District Authorities and many Ljubljana societies are also actively involved in the cleaning campaign. This year, we are also separating waste collected, as we would like in this way to emphasise the importance of separating waste and making a contribution to greater recycling and reducing the amount of waste that is disposed of in the Barje landfill site.

In Ljubljana as part of the ‘We’re Cleaning Slovenia 2012’ campaign, residents can bring waste to any of 62 collection points, while the Snaga public company will use 33 vehicles (garbage trucks, lorries and vehicles with lifts) to transport the material to Barje and the separated waste collected directly to Dinos. Last year, Snaga staff transported more than 300 tons of waste to the Barje Waste Management Site. Most of this was bulk waste (over 200 tons) and mixed municipal waste (over 86 tons), while they also transported 12 tons of various tyres and 1,500 kilograms of dangerous waste. The tyres, dangerous waste and 23 tons of sorted bulk waste were handed over to authorised organisations, and the remaining part of bulk and mixed municipal waste were disposed of in the Barje landfill site.

The For a More Beautiful Ljubljana 2012 campaign also sees participation from partners in the CIVITAS ELAN European project for cleaner and better transport. On Friday 20 April 2012 in Congress Square in central Ljubljana they are going to organise activities that will demonstrate how the quality of life in the city centre can be raised. Among other things, visitors will be able to try out different bikes: folding, electric, suppliers, tandems and bikes of other interesting types. Children will be able to have fun taking part in ‘classic’ street games’ such as ‘hopscotch’, ‘stealing ground’, ‘Chinese jump rope’ and jumping over a skipping rope as well as the traditional portrayal of ‘Ljubljana through children’s eyes’ – with cartoon motifs of sustainable mobility on the ground.

This year, the For a More Beautiful Ljubljana 2012 campaign is to feature – for the 21st year running – the Ljubljanica clean-up campaign, which alongside its ecological mission, has become a favourite Ljubljana tourist event. The campaign, which this year is to be held on 21 April 2012, is to see participation from divers, members of the Vivera underwater activities society and members of other diving clubs from the Slovenian Diving Association as well as members of other societies such as environmentalists, fishermen, fire fighters, rescue services, and boatmen. The bed of the Ljubljanica is to be cleaned from Špica to Dragon Bridge. Rubbish lifted from the water will be put on display on Cobblers’ Bridge (Čevljarski most) as a reminder to passers-by from 10am onwards. Also on Cobblers’ Bridge, free flower seeds are to be handed out, with which Ljubljana residents will be able to brighten up their garden or window box. From 11am to 1pm, on Cobblers’ Bridge and on the Hribar and Cankar Embankments (Hribarjevo and Cankarjevo nabrežje) there is to be held a traditional event in which the Water Man goes among the strollers in bourgeois clothing to seek his conceited maiden Urška. Once he has found her, they will dance away together into the Ljubljanica.

On World Water Day, that this year bore the title ‘Water and Food Security’, the Vodovod-Kanalizacija public company published an informative leaflet in Slovene entitled ‘Drinking water in 2011’. On 21 April, the day of the Ljubljanica clean-up campaign, the VO-KA public company is also preparing an event at Špica, in which its activities will be showcased to the general public.