Follow the Garbage

For the Follow the Garbage project, Oštro’s journalists equipped 30 more or less common household waste items with tracking devices to test Slovenia’s waste management system.

STORIES

6. 7. 2022

Follow the Garbage: Slovenian Backpack Ends Up in Pakistan

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.

7. 2. 2022

Gas station dumps plastic packaging into mixed trash

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.

7. 2. 2022

How a broken backpack travelled to a Croatian port

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.

7. 2. 2022

Tyre removed, illegal dumping site cleaned

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.

Highlighted waste

Yogurt packaging

drop‑off location:
packaging bin, Petrol service station, Kozina

intermediate location:
Sežana waste‑management centre

final location:
Kostak waste‑management centre, Krško

We disposed of the yogurt packaging in the packaging bin in front of the entrance to the petrol station, where this waste was mixed with other municipal waste, which the Sežana municipal company then transported to the waste‑management centre in Sežana.

Backpack

drop‑off location:
used‑textile container, Dolga Street, Moravske Toplice

intermediate location:
West Hungary Textil, Zalaegerszeg, Hungary; Port of Salalah, Oman

final location:
Larkana, Pakistan

Raztrgani nahrbtnik je čez Madžarsko prispel na Reko, nato pa potoval skozi Oman do Pakistana. V mestu Larkana smo izgubili povezavo s sledilnikom. Nahrbtnik so najverjetneje prodali.

Insecticide packaging

drop‑off location:
special‑waste container, Vrhnika collection centre

intermediate location:
Saubermacher hazardous‑waste management centre, Kidričevo

final location:
Arnoldstein, Austria

The hazardous waste collected by the Vrhnika municipal company is taken over by Saubermacher. There, they confirmed that it is transported to the facility in Kidričevo and then sent abroad for incineration.

Car tyre

Drop-off location:
Illegal waste dumping site near Obvozna Road, Ljubljana.

final location:
Ljubljana Marshes

After a call to the municipal inspectorate, it ordered Vo-Ka Snaga to remove the illegal dumpsite. The tracker last reported the waste’s location in the Ljubljana Marshes, most likely at the Barje collection centre.