This positive result may be a sign of hope in the fight against the climate crisis. That is the reason why initiatives such as the World Environment Day – which has been drawing attention to global problems connected to the environment since 1973 and supports the search for solutions to such problems – play an important role. They connect people from all parts of the world in the fight for a common ideal – the protection of our planet.

The generation of municipal waste has been increasing continuously. In 2019 the average amount of waste generated per one Slovak was 421 kg; one year later it was as much as 433 kg. Waste separation is one of the most accessible tools for joining the fight against the climate crisis.

According to a survey conducted by Nielsen for the producer responsibility organisation ASEKOL SK in August last year, as much as 76.8% of the interviewees would like to adapt their habits to protect the climate. “The survey results clearly show that, in spite of the people who find the climate change to be unimportant, most of us realize its presence. We at ASEKOL also feel that people care about environmental protection more and more,” says Ronald Blaho, the executive officer of ASEKO.

One of the ways to do that is to minimize waste generation and separate the generated waste in coloured containers. Slovaks may also be glad to hear that the amount of mixed waste is decreasing. Although the separate waste collection systems may differ in individual municipalities, as much as 92% of people can decide into which container they should deposit their waste.

One of the reasons why we are successful at separating waste into coloured containers may be a well-built network of collection points. 81% of the interviewees consider the access to containers for separate collection to be easy and only 17% say the opposite.

In addition to the well-built network, we also achieved such results thanks to awareness-raising activities. The concept behind the World Environment Day in 2022 points out the fact that we have just one Earth to live on.

On such occasion, ASEKOL SK is inviting Slovak towns and municipalities to take part in the World Environment Day by organising environmental activities for their inhabitants. They may be labelled as an “environmentally-friendly municipality” for organising activities involving cleaning the waste from public spaces. If they also become involved in the “Environmentally-Friendly Municipality” project, they may receive a contribution to perform activities related to the collection of waste in the streets.

This is just one of the ways how we point out the problems that we are facing at the moment, and in this manner we also encourage people to think about changing their behaviour. Register your town or municipality for the “Environmentally-Friendly Municipality” project at [email protected].