Follow the Garbage

A backpack equipped with a tracking device that Oštro dropped off in a waste bin in Moravske Toplice, Slovenia, pinged back its location from a port in Oman, from where it travelled on to Pakistan. The country is the most popular destination for second-hand clothing from the EU.

Oštro tested the Slovenian communal waste management system by setting tracking devices on waste items then disposing of them in correct or incorrect ways. A torn backpack travelled all the way to a Croatian port, while workers at a gas station threw separately collected plastic waste into a mixed waste container.

Most discarded clothing in Slovenia end up in black containers intended for mixed communal waste. Oštro followed textile waste by equipping it with tracking devices and disposing of it in different locations.

Oštro’s reporters disposed of various waste items in containers and collection centres across the country. All items were equipped with hidden tracking devices that were emitting their geolocation data. What follows below are some of the more interesting findings.