Cigarette butts remain the most common type of litter found at selected sites across Slovakia, accounting for nearly six in ten discarded items collected this summer.
The latest survey by ENVI-PAK, an organisation that helps companies meet their packaging waste obligations, found that cigarette waste made up 58 percent of all items collected at 28 locations across the country. Its share rose by almost eight percentage points compared with 2025.
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Other plastics, including snack wrappers, bottle caps and packaging film, came a distant second at 16.3 percent, followed by paper at 7.9 percent.
The findings are based on the number of items collected, rather than their weight or volume.
Changes in the composition of litter in Slovakia (2024–2026): cigarette waste (cigaretový odpad), other plastics (iné plasty), paper (papier), hygiene products (hygienické potreby), other glass (iné sklo). (source: envipak.sk)
Plastic bottles make a comeback
Slovakia introduced a deposit-return system for plastic drinks bottles and cans in 2022. Customers pay a deposit of 15 cents when buying drinks in eligible containers and receive it back when returning the empties.
The system was followed by a sharp decline in the number of discarded bottles and cans found in ENVI-PAK's surveys.
This year, however, PET drinks bottles accounted for 2.2 percent of the litter collected, up from 1.3 percent in 2025.
It remains unclear whether the increase is a temporary fluctuation or the beginning of a wider change.
Cigarette waste dominates in the west
The survey also revealed differences between regions.
Cigarette waste accounted for 60.6 percent of discarded items collected in western Slovakia, including Bratislava, compared with 53.4 percent in central Slovakia and 48.5 percent in the east.
Eastern Slovakia, meanwhile, had the highest proportion of other plastics, at 28.1 percent. The corresponding figures were 16.5 percent in central Slovakia and 13.4 percent in the west.
No discarded PET drinks bottles were recorded at the eastern sites included in the survey.
Central Slovakia stood out for hygiene waste, including tissues and wet wipes, which accounted for 4.9 percent of the items found.
Type of litter | Percentage |
|---|---|
Cigarette litter | 58% |
Other plastics | 16.30% |
Paper | 7.90% |
Other metals | 3.70% |
Hygiene products | 3.30% |
Other litter | 3.10% |
PET drinks containers | 2.20% |
Glass drinks containers | 1.90% |
Drinks cans | 1.50% |
Biodegradable waste | 1.10% |
Other glass | 0.50% |
Composite drinks cartons | 0.50% |
Some rubbish may have disappeared before the survey
ENVI-PAK has monitored litter in Slovakia since 2020, repeatedly examining many of the same locations to track changes over time.
The latest survey covered towns, villages, recreational areas and natural sites, including locations around Bratislava, the Záhorie Protected Landscape Area and the Kunov reservoir near Senica.
Researchers also noticed packaging from protein drinks at several locations this year, while larger discarded objects, such as tyres, were less common.
Katarína Kretter, ENVI-PAK's communications director, cautioned that the findings might not reflect everything originally discarded at the sites.
“We cannot say with certainty that somebody had not cleaned the sites before us and collected larger pieces of waste, while simply overlooking cigarette butts or considering them insignificant because of their size,” she said.