Informal Education and Awareness of the Public in the Field of Waste Management

Abstract

The modern way of life means that our basic needs are becoming greater day by day. An increasing desire for material goods and a pleasant lifestyle brings with it negative consequences such as an increasing amount of waste. Waste policy in the European Union has been envisioned through the waste management hierarchy. This system gives the greatest emphasis to waste prevention, followed by preparation for reuse, recycling, energy use and the final step, which is disposal. The main problem of excessive amounts of disposing waste in landfill is obscured in the social awareness of waste management. In Slovenia, the educational concept is built to point out and resolve the problem which we have with waste management. The educational concept is based on the raising of people's awareness. This awareness would be achieved in two phases. The first phase of raising awareness would be achieved through the media and through the web. The target group for this phase is adults. Awareness is going to be focused on proper waste management and on the rationale of the waste hierarchy. This concept is based on content such as demonstrating the main mistakes which were made, misconceptions related to treatment and on the benefits obtained by correct handling for achieving a higher rate of waste intended for energy utilization. The second phase of awareness is defined for a target group of all kinds of educators, which could be a school teacher, waste management experts, company directors through non-formal educational mechanisms such as microtraining. In this paper we would like to point out necessity to transfer knowledge about waste management from experts to the general publics, with increasing the awareness of whole populations.