The main goal of the competition was to highlight and make visible the results of the work of people who care about waste management and are constantly working to improve it. In this way Priatelia Zeme – SPZ (Friends of the Earth – SPZ) wanted to point out that waste problems can be solved in a positive way in Slovakia.

The jury, comprising professionals in the area, mainly assessed the activities of registered communities in the area of waste prevention looking at their improvement in amounts of separated waste, the comfortable system created for waste producers, the level of public awareness, the complexity of the whole waste management system and other indicators. The monitoring period for achieving the progress was between 2007 and 2009.

Martin Valentovič, chairman of the organization Priatelia Zeme – SZP (Friends of the Earth – SPZ), the coordinating body of the competition, says: “We are conscious of how demanding work in waste management is and we appreciate people who dedicate their energy and time to it. The first year has shown that the competition has become a good tool to make visible the results of their work. We believe that the second year will once again help get well-deserved attention and recognition for people that devote themselves entirely to the issue of waste.”

The town of Dubnica nad Váhom came first. During the monitored period it managed to markedly increase the amount of separated waste of these items – metals 139 %, multilayer combined materials 42 %, textiles 52 %, tires 157%, WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) 93 %, construction waste 41 %, etc. Its waste management is very comfortable for inhabitants, not only in terms of high availability and facilities, but also in terms of the kinds of collected municipal waste. Another good example for other communities can be seen in the fact that the town separates and hands in a part of its bulky waste to recycling instead of storing it in landfills, while another part of the bulky waste is sent for energy recovery as an alternative fuel.

The town of Nová Dubnica placed second overall. Its greatest progress was in its increase by almost 90% of collected biodegradable waste from green waste during the monitoring time period. Also, the amount of separated metal waste, multilayer combined containers and paper increased significantly. It is also interesting that for post-separation processing of separated waste, the town has created a sheltered workshop where disadvantaged groups of inhabitants are employed. However, the most important accomplishment of the city is a decrease in the amount of mixed municipal waste stored in landfills of more than 15 %.

The municipality of Palárikovo came third. In this case, even though no significant progress appeared in the assessed areas during the monitored period, Palárikovois achieving unprecedented results in its amounts of separated waste per inhabitant with items such as paper, metals, WEEE, multilayer combined materials etc. The effectiveness of a separate collection in the municipality is running at an extraordinary rate of 65.5 %, enough to confidently rival the very best in European.

This year too, the jury decided to present an exceptional award for High-Quality Long-term Work and Exceptional Results Achieved in Waste Management. The award was won by the municipality of Palárikovo. Thanks to a system, which is maximally comfortable for waste originators, and to its exemplary informational activities, it achieved a result of up to 98 % of inhabitants regularly involved in separate collection. As a result, since 2004, more municipal waste has been sent for recycling than dumped and deposited in landfills.

The awards were handed out to their winners during the conference entitled ‘Opportunities of Reduction of Communal Waste Management Expenses’, held within the PRO EKO exhibition in front of more than 100 attendees in Banská Bystrica last week.“The winning communities obtained from Priatelia Zeme – SZP free consultancy in waste management, eco-educational materials for the public, but also hand-made art objects by Slovak craftsmen. However, we consider that the most significant part of the acknowledgement of their effort is the prestige and publicity they have gained, thanks to which all of Slovakia can find out about the success of the winning communities. The waste management systems of the winners are detailed in the Priatelia Zeme – SZP (Friends of the Earth – SPZ) handbook ‘Separated Waste in Cities and Municipalities – Examples from Real Life.’ We believe that this is the best way to demonstrate that even in Slovakia it is possible to achieve positive results in waste management,”explained Martin Valentovič.