Introduction: During the last three decades, the area of waste management in Slovenia has been regulated by different approaches and regulations. Therefore, waste management gradually turned from simple landfilling to more sustainable waste management options. The process of closing landfills and implementing more sustainable landfilling was quite difficult for landfill operators and, in some cases, even infeasible. The cases where this proved infeasible related to landfill disorganization, discrepancy of regulations and strategies and their complexity. Purpose: The purpose of our research was to provide an assessment of the effectiveness of sustainable waste management policies in the case study of non-hazardous waste landfill Širjava pri Ponovičah. Methods: We used a descriptive methodological approach. The location of the research was the territory of the Republic of Slovenia with associated landfills for non-hazardous municipal waste. Data was obtained from insights into documentation resources. Results: The Landfill of Waste Policy from 2000 stated that the operator of a landfill which ceases to operate by 31 December 2003 should report this to the competent Ministry of the Environment, which was the case of the company Komunalno stanovanjsko podjetje Litija d.o.o. in connection with the non-hazardous waste landfill Širjava pri Ponovičah. At the same time, the Litija agricultural cooperative agreed with the Municipality of Litija to set up a waste management collection centre at this landfill. Therefore, the municipal council of the Municipality of Litija approved the proposal to request an authorization from the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning to extend the use of the landfill Širjava pri Ponovičah. The closing of the landfill Širjava pri Ponovičah took place in the first and second phase. The Regulation on the Landfill of Waste in 2006 introduced an amendment which stipulated that the landfill operation adaptation program, started in accordance with the Landfill of Waste Policy, was to be terminated based on the new Regulation. Komunalno stanovanjsko podjetje Litija d.o.o. sent a request to the Slovenian Environment Agency for extending the deadline for the final closing of the landfill Širjava pri Ponovičah to 15 July 2012 in order to complete the second phase of the closing. The second phase of the closing was performed in the second half of 2017, after receiving the environmental permit. In order to receive the environmental permit, a financial guarantee was required, which could be submitted, based on the amendment of the Regulation on the Landfill of Waste (2016) for a landfill that is a public infrastructure owned by the municipality, as a statement issued by a municipal authority that it was notified of the financial guarantee. Discussion and conclusion: In Slovenia, the process of closing landfills of non-hazardous municipal waste in the period 1991-2017 was influenced by local and national policies of Slovenia and those of the European Union. Stricter measures on the closing of old landfills did not necessarily bring the relative decrease of the negative impacts of landfills on the environment. The impact on the environment would lessen only if the old landfill properties were actually changed in a way that allows sustainable operation.
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