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Description
Our association is raising public awareness of the issue of industrial environmental pollution due to the consequences of the operation of the Salonit Anhovo cement plant. After the legal ban on the use of asbestos in the 1990s, the cement plant began to use waste, including hazardous waste, as its energy source. Currently, the cement plant incinerates 109,000 tons of waste per year, releasing large amounts of emissions into the environment. These emissions are a combination of various chemical compounds and heavy metals and pose a threat to human health and the environment.
Co-incineration of waste in a cement plant is made possible by extremely discriminatory legislation that allows cement plants to incinerate waste under significantly milder conditions and with less control than is the case with specialized waste incineration plants. In terms of the amount of waste incinerated, Salonit Anhovo is the largest waste incinerator in Slovenia with lower environmental standards. The cement plant intends to increase the amount of waste to an unimaginable 220,000 tons per year in the near future.
The project aims to protect our environment from the announced additional burdens. Through various activities we will raise public awareness of the harmful effects of incineration of large quantities of waste on the environment and human health. We will encourage decision-makers at the local and national level to take a firmer stance on the issue of waste co-incineration in the cement plant and we will advocate for changes in policies and more appropriate legislation.
Summary of project results
The goal of the Eko Anhovo Association and the Soča Valley project and the help of participating implementers, to prevent or at least minimize the negative environmental practices in the Middle Soča Valley:
a) Prevent further increases in cement clinker production and the amount of waste co-incineration in the cement plant; b) Limit the already existing excessive exploitation of mineral raw materials and cement clinker production intended for supplying cement plants in neighboring Italy; c) Achieve stricter regulations from state decision-makers concerning waste co-incineration in cement kilns, bringing them to the level that applies to waste incinerators.
Whitin the project the following activities were performed: Preparing an analysis of harmful emissions into the air from the Salonit Anhovo cement plant in recent years, which will show the existing environmental burdens from the plant; Preparing an analysis of outdoor air quality measurements (emissions) in the local environment; Reviewing the documentation of the Salonit Anhovo cement plant when it starts the process of changing its environmental permit to increase cement clinker production and the amount of waste co-incineration, which will assess the validity and accuracy of the presented environmental data and claims regarding the impacts of the increase on the environment; Including the association as an environmental NGO acting in the public interest in the administrative procedure for changing the environmental permit; Organizing educational lectures for local residents about the numerous consequences of cement production; Organizing more general educational lectures for elementary and high school students, which will contribute to greater engagement of young people, who are most affected by the long-term consequences of environmental pollution; Addressing and raising awareness among state decision-makers about the poor environmental practices represented by cement production in the Middle Soča Valley, and about the inappropriate legislation that allows co-incineration plants to burn waste under much more favorable conditions than dedicated waste incinerators.
Monitored the environment to prevent additional burdens. Prevented an increase in production and co-incineration in the cement plant, which means fewer pollutants in the air and fewer harmful effects on the health of local residents. Submitted a bill to the National Assembly with the support of citizens, which will align the emission limit values for co-incineration cement plants with those that apply to specialized waste incinerators.