Entries by Špela Gutnik

Circularity Assessment Score: we are Circular Frontrunners

22/04/2021 in /by

We celebrate the Earth Day on April 22nd and we find this a good opportunity to rethink our everyday practices and lifestyle - how do we act as individuals (or the company) in terms of the use of resources? Let’s ask ourselves, what is our attitude toward the environment, how much food do we put to waste, how much waste and waste packaging do we “produce” per month or how much energy do we use? Is there something that we could change?

Given that in Slovenia, we use 3 times as many natural resources as we have available, we believe it is necessary to rethink our behavior and habits.

Circular Shield team is working with municipalities and waste management companies – we help them build and manage circular economy programs in their local communities. At this year’s Earth Day we decided to assess our circularity and check our current status.

Using the Circularity Assessment Score* method, which combines several factors, such as: renewable sources, product/service design, use of waste as resources, digitalization ... our Circularity Assessment Score is 84.6 (out of 100).

This places us high on a scale of circular frontrunners. We are happy to get such a rewarding result, however we will continue to work on improving our circular practices in the future.

The Circularity Assessment Score helps us understand the current level of circularity in our organization and processes. By using such tools, we can reveal potential circular opportunities and measure our progress.

*Check your Circularity Assessment Score: https://www.circularbusiness.academy/

Public supports municipal material cycles; people are proud that their local public institutions and companies use recycled hygiene paper

17/03/2021 in /by

We researched the impact of municipal material cycles in MMC Novo mesto municipalities. The results show a very high level of environmental awareness, with over 70% agreement on importance of environment preservation activities. People are concerned about their local waste management activities and practices.

The research also shows that almost everyone in MMC Novo mesto (99%) supports the use of recycled hygiene paper from local material cycle to be used in public institutions and companies.

The research was conducted by Mediana research agency, took place in 8 municipalities that forms MMC Novo mesto (Novo mesto, Dolenjske Toplica, Mirna Peč, Straža, Šentjernej, Škocjan, Šmarješke Toplice and Žužemberk). 404 respondents were interviewed, half of them thru web panel and the other half over the phone. There were 100 public institution employees included in the research - they are actual users of recycled hygiene paper products. We asked them for more detailed quality assessment of our products – multipurpose towels, handkerchiefs, and toilet paper.

We were testing the colour, absorbance, touch and feel and general quality compared to regular (not recycled) products. On the scale from 1 to 5, all our products were given high likeability scores on all tested characteristics – the highest ranked was the absorbance (4.0), followed by the colour (3.9), touch & feel and general quality (3.8).

Respondents of the research expressed very high (over 90%) awareness and concern for natural environment. The results show that over 80% of population in these municipalities highly appreciate individuals and organizations that are active in saving the environment. Over 80% of population already separate waste packaging, but they claim to put even more attention to beverage carton waste separation in the future, because of the MMC project. 90% of the population believe that such projects as municipal material cycle of waste beverage carton and recycled hygiene paper are important for environmental protection and they support the idea that local public institutions prefer purchase of those materials.

10 Slovenian municipalities are transforming their waste UBC into hygiene paper products for their public facilities

11/03/2021 in /by

The amount of waste generated in Slovenia is constantly growing, as well as the amount of municipal waste. So, it is very important to develop a strategy of municipal waste management – at least for waste that can be reused or recycled. Very good example is used beverage cartons, that can be collected and transformed to high quality hygiene paper products.

Instead of using primary resources (wood), the recycled hygiene paper is made of cellulose from used beverage cartons, that Slovenian residents dispose in yellow waste containers.

Material cycles of used beverage cartons and recycled hygiene paper are successfully operating in 10 Slovenian municipalities: Ljubljana, Novo mesto, Brežice, Mirna Peč, Žužemberk, Dolenjske Toplice, Škocjan, Šentjernej, Straža, Šmarješke Toplice. More than 18% of Slovenian population lives in the participating municipalities.

Used beverage cartons leave these municipalities as a waste and return back transformed to a useful high quality hygiene paper products. These recycled paper products are then used in public institutions (municipal offices, schools, kindergartens, healthy centres, cultural and sports facilities, libraries, etc.) and some private companies in the same municipalities where the waste were collected. By today, these municipalities have collected and transformed over 640 tons of used beverage cartons.

Our aim is to replicate this practice soon on a large scale across Slovenia. This circular economy case would help Slovenia to improve its municipal waste recycling rate.