Eight planned incinerators, and the communities fighting them
Slovakia has eight planned waste incinerators, but the zero waste movement scored two significant victories in 2024: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) proceedings were cancelled for two incinerators in Šaľa and Selice (each with a 100,000-tonne annual capacity) and for two chemical recycling facilities in Nováky and Liptovský Mikuláš. Friends of the Earth Slovakia (Priatelia Zeme: SPZ) ran the "Stop Incinerators" campaign, working closely with affected municipalities and local communities.
What the campaign involves
- Close collaboration with municipalities directly affected by proposed incinerator siting
- Legal intervention in EIA processes to block or delay construction approvals
- Public education showing that zero waste systems (composting, PAYT, source separation) produce better outcomes than incineration at lower community cost
- Political advocacy for Slovakia's national waste strategy to prioritise prevention over burning
How to engage
- Follow Friends of the Earth Slovakia (Priatelia Zeme: SPZ) for updates on active EIA challenges
- Contact your municipal council to ask whether your community is in the path of a proposed incinerator
- Share Partizánske's, Košeca's, and Úľany nad Žitavou's results as evidence that source separation and PAYT outperform incineration economically
Why it matters
Every incinerator built commits a municipality to decades of high-volume waste generation. Slovakia's four cancelled EIAs demonstrate that organised civic advocacy can interrupt the infrastructure pipeline, and that presenting real-world zero waste data to decision-makers works.
Source & repost
Shared here so you can get inspired or find action already happening near you. Solarpunker does not own or organise it.
- Lead: Friends of the Earth Slovakia (Priatelia Zeme: SPZ)
- Campaign: Stop spaľovniam (Stop Incinerators)
- Report chapter: ZWE State of Zero Waste Municipalities, 5th edition
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