President Kiska signs waste bill into law

Unlike in the majority of western European countries, most waste ends up in landfill sites in Slovakia, a state of affairs that is targeted by a new bill on waste that President Andrej Kiska signed into law on Wednesday, adding in a statement that the decision to sign the bill wasn't easy. The law, which is coming into force as of January 2016, attempts to teach Slovaks to make wider use of separating and recycling waste, bringing the country closer to modern and cleaner Europe. Currently some 75 percent of 1.7 tonnes of municipal waste ends up in landfill sites each year. The law has garnered disapproval from a number of stakeholders, with over 2,600 comments raised regarding the proposed bill during the inter-ministerial comments. As late as Tuesday, the President's Office received a petition launched by a civic initiative that contained over 6,500 signatures and urged Kiska to refer the bill back to Parliament, claiming that the bill is riddled with shortcomings and is 'extremely costly'. The law will do away with the Recycling Fund and the paying of recycling fees by producers and importers. It introduces the principle of broader responsibility, which means that producers and importers will be responsible for individual products in terms of placing them on the market, and until they are disposed of.