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The story of Ljubljana

Slovenia

In 2014, Ljubljana became the first European Capital to move towards Zero Waste. The city has managed to multiply its separate collection of organic waste and to reduce the amount of waste sent for disposal by 95% while maintaining waste management costs among the lowest in Europe. How? Snaga, the public company that provides waste management in the province of Ljubljana, adopted three main strategies:

Introduction of a door-to-door collection system, specifically focused on the collection of organic waste
Lower the frequency of collection for residual waste while keeping the collection of recyclables and organic waste the same
Strong communication strategy focused on prevention and reuse to engage citizens.

After 14 years, data speak for themselves:

Total waste generation decreased by 15 %
Recycled or composted waste average went up to 68%
The amount of waste sent to landfill decreased by 95 %

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The story of Calatafimi Segesta

Italy

Calatafimi Segesta may be small, but it provides one of Europe’s leading examples of how an island municipality can implement an effective zero waste strategy whilst also focusing on improving the lives of the local community.

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The story of Tübingen

Tübingen/Germany

The German city of Tübingen took the pioneering steps of introducing a city wide tax on single-use plastic items, which formed just one part of a wider strategy to foster reuse within the city.

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Introduction of tax on some single-use items

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decrease of waste in public spaces

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