Minister Leben says that they are trying to solve this problem as fast as they can. Foto: BoBo/Žiga Živulović ml.
Minister Leben says that they are trying to solve this problem as fast as they can. Foto: BoBo/Žiga Živulović ml.

Minister Leben says that they are trying to solve this problem as fast as they can. At the Municipal Chamber, they claim that they do not know what to do and where to place those few thousand tons of waste. Sebastjan Zupanc says: "What about the new year. At the moment, we have a lot of packaging waste in municipal public utility companies, which should be emptied right now."

One option would be temporary removal to degraded areas, however, according to the minister, they are still searching for the most appropriate areas. "We are already working on it and searching all over Slovenia. The biggest challenge is to find an area, where the permit for the disposal of packaging already exist, which means it could take a while.

After the adoption of the intervention act, an inspection and disposal should follow, however, it is necessary to avoid the scenario we have already witnessed in the past. The Ministry is, therefore, preparing a new environmental protection act: "One of the suggestion is, to create a system on the principle of public good, and not according to the market principles. This is a system that affects all of us.

This would apply the principle that the polluter pays: the bigger the production, the bigger the costs. However, this will require a more transparent system: not only how much waste is generated in certain areas but also where will they end up.