Where should a yogurt container go? What should we do with a broken drinking glass, an old toothbrush or a discarded electrical appliance? For everyday questions like these, ŽIVA is now available – an interactive AI environmental assistant that helps users sort waste correctly. For tourism providers and guests, it can be a practical tool for making waste sorting simpler, clearer and more sustainable.
The Chamber of Public Utilities of Slovenia (ZKGS), together with experts from public utility service providers, has prepared the National Uniform Guidelines for Proper Municipal Waste Sorting. Based on these guidelines, ŽIVA, a digital assistant, was developed to provide quick access to professionally verified information on waste management.
Ask a question just as you would ask a person
ŽIVA is designed to be interactive. Users do not need to know technical terminology or search through long lists of waste types – they can simply ask a question in everyday language.
For example: Where should I throw away an old toothbrush? or Where should broken glass go?
The assistant then provides an easy-to-understand answer based on uniform national guidelines. The system currently includes almost 600 registered types of waste, and the database will continue to be expanded and updated.
Useful for international guests too
Multilingual support is particularly important for tourism destinations. In addition to Slovenian, ŽIVA can communicate in English, Italian, Croatian, German and Hungarian.
This means that visitors to the Portorož & Piran destination can also use it to resolve everyday waste-sorting questions. For apartments, hotels, restaurants and other tourism providers, it can therefore serve as a useful additional tool for informing guests about proper waste sorting. Providers can introduce ŽIVA to guests upon arrival, include the link in digital accommodation instructions or recommend it whenever a guest is unsure where a particular item of waste should go.
Uniform guidelines that will also take local specifics into account
One of the main reasons for developing the project was that instructions, terminology and the way waste sorting is presented can vary between different parts of Slovenia. The national guidelines therefore provide a common professional basis and give users clearer information regardless of where they live or visit.
It is important to note, however, that ŽIVA is not yet a unified database containing all information from every individual public utility company. In cooperation with public service providers, the system is gradually being supplemented with local specifics regarding waste drop-off and collection, while some public utility companies have already integrated ŽIVA directly into their websites.
For entirely local information, such as waste collection schedules, collection points or specific rules in individual locations, it is therefore still advisable to check the instructions provided by the relevant public utility company. In our destination, detailed information on waste sorting and collection is also available from Okolje Piran.
Better sorting means more opportunities for recycling
Proper waste sorting is not just about deciding which bin a particular item belongs in. Cleaner separately collected waste fractions increase the chances that materials can be reused as secondary raw materials and returned to production processes. This reduces the amount of mixed municipal waste, the consumption of new natural resources and the burden on the environment. This is why proper waste sorting is an important part of the circular economy and more responsible destination management.
A small step towards a greener holiday
In a destination that welcomes large numbers of visitors every year, even small everyday decisions can make a big difference.
We invite tourism providers to introduce ŽIVA to their employees and guests, and encourage visitors to use it whenever they are unsure where a particular item of waste belongs.
Proper waste sorting is a simple step through which each of us can contribute to a cleaner environment, more efficient use of resources and a more sustainable destination.
Try ŽIVA and find out where your waste belongs.
Source: Chamber of Public Utilities of Slovenia
