Plastic Pollution in Slovenia: From Plastic Waste Management to Research on Microplastics

Despite the increasing environmental awareness, there is still an enormous amount of plastic waste generated which often ends up in the environment. Slovenia is not an exception, and in the past years, there was a lot of effort to minimize plastic pollution in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Since waste management is closely connected to plastic pollution, the first part of the chapter summarizes waste management practice and plastic waste handling in Slovenia. According to European statistical data, Slovenia belongs among countries, where a good waste management practice is well established; waste collection, recycling rate, and waste management are comparable to other developed countries. The book chapter also focuses on the plastic waste in Slovenia and how plastic pollution is treated from a governmental perspective as well as from the perspective of nonprofit organizations. The last part of the chapter is aimed to present research on plastic pollution and microplastics in Slovenia; to introduce current research efforts and trends in Slovenia; to discuss monitoring results and the impact of microplastics on the local environment; and to link these results to the global microplastic research.