It is only reasonable to become a zero waste society and for producers to immediately start redesigning products, and for us to make the transition in our mentality to stop buying products that we do not really need or products that we could, in fact, borrow. In the interim (transitional period), until all our products are sustainable ones, waste incinerators (thermal treatment that utilises energy recovery) will still be unavoidable. However, this does not mean that new ones will need to be built, instead, the existing infrastructure can be utilised. Thermal treatment should only be allowed to be used for waste that cannot be utilised or returned into the material flow in any way. In my master’s thesis I have presented an overview of municipal waste management: the history and current situation in both Slovenia and Europe. I carried out a study on Zero Waste and the standard of municipal waste services. I have presented the techniques of treating mixed municipal waste, a circular economy, material flows of certain types of waste, the 5 or 6 steps of waste management, as well as the Zero Waste movement and how to join this movement. The ‘Loči.me’ (‘separate me’) application was developed to promote the correct sorting of waste and encourage people to separate their waste. On the basis of the facts examined, I put forward some proposals on how to harmonise the operations of municipal companies, critically determine the current roles and perspectives of modern methods of waste thermal treatment and an initiative to adopt a circular economy as a systemic solution for the formation of a zero waste society.
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