16. September 2020

23.45 tonnes of waste carton packaging dispatched for processing into hygienic tissue paper for the Brežice (Slovenia) residents

A truck with 23.45 tonnes of waste carton packaging was dispatched from the Boršt pri Cerkljah waste management centre. It will be processed into hygienic tissue paper that will be used in the public institutions of Brežice that are participating in their Municipal material cycle. From the project beginnings until today, they have contributed to the 267 trees from being cut and reduced the CO₂ emissions for 16,695 kg.

When the truck was dispatched, which was an occasion for the Brežice residents to celebrate their Municipal material cycle of used beverage cartons and tissue paper, the cycle partners and tissue paper users also gathered. The Brežice Primary School is among them and its headmaster Mrs. Marinka Lubšina Novak described the beginnings: “The Brežice Primary School was happy to join the project. Initially, we invited pupils to start collecting waste tetra-pak packaging. We showed them what tetra-pak can be recycled into. This was followed by a short competition. We also decided to start using recycled tissue paper. This way, we show our children what the circular economy is and how our Municipal material cycle works, where used beverage cartons are recycled into tissue paper. We have been using recycled paper for over a year.”

More than half a million pieces of recycled tetra-pak packaging waste

The people of Brežice are proud of the environmental conservation so far. They have preserved 267 trees and prevented 1,068 m₂ of forest from being harvested. By recycling more than 586,000 pieces of used beverage cartons, they have reduced the CO₂ emissions by 16,695 kg. Mrs. Mila Levec, deputy-mayor of the Brežice municipality, pointed out: “The Municipality of Brežice willingly participates in projects that help reduce environmental pollution. At the end of 2018, we joined the project; moreover, we also encouraged our public institutions (which use 33 tons of hygienic tissue paper per year) to participate. We will now obtain hygienic tissue paper by recycling our used beverage cartons. A circular culture can certainly be said to be in our hands now.”

Mrs. Jadranka Novoselc, Komunala Brežice CEO, has invited public institutions and municipality residents to participate: »The Circular Culture in Our Hands project was initiated over a year and a half ago. We are delighted that many companies and institutions in the Municipality of Brežice have already joined the project. I would like to invite other companies and institutions to join the campaign so we can collectively support nature.” 

Mr. Drago Ferlan and Mrs. Bojana Zevnik from Komunala Brežice, Mr. Goran Ambrož from the company Dinos, and Niko Kumar from Circular Shield also participated in the dispatch.

Goran Ambrož, head of Dinos non-metal operations and the »take back scheme« explains why Dinos became one of the stakeholders in Municipal material cycle: »Dinos encourages and supports circular economy projects such as Municipal material cycle. Dinos raises awareness of the inhabitants through the established take back system for waste packaging, and thus ensures the waste packaging to be correctly and separately collected resulting in good separation of different packaging types according to the material; in this case of used beverage cartons. These UBCs are sent to be recycled and transformed into hygiene paper which is then delivered and used in the same local community. We actually have been executing circular economy since Dinos establishment back in 1946.«

Niko Kumar tells us about the dynamics of the cycle management: “Even when the municipal material cycle of cartons and hygienic paper is established, its management constantly needs to involve several perspectives. The most demanding of these is synchronising the quantity of collected waste carton packaging and the quantities of recycled hygienic tissue paper used in the participating institutions. The growing number of participating institutions contributes to the stability of this circular economy project and their local communities.”