Trash bins in toilets

Please take your waste back to the valley

One of the most important traditions and good practices among hikers and mountaineers in Slovenia is simple: everything you bring into the mountains, you should also take back down to the valley.

This is not only a rule of good behaviour, but also an important part of protecting Triglav National Park, Vršič Pass, the Julian Alps, and the fragile mountain environment around Erjavčeva koča mountain hut.

Toilet bins are for toilet paper and hygiene paper only. Please do not put your personal trash, food packaging, bottles, cans, tissues, wet wipes, or other rubbish into the bins in the toilets.

If you have rubbish and cannot take it back to the valley yourself, please hand it over to the hut staff instead of leaving it in the toilets, rooms, restaurant, parking area, or outside in nature.

Why waste separation matters at Vršič Pass

Waste separation is very important in a mountain hut. Please separate your waste correctly whenever possible. Mixed waste, unsorted rubbish, and contaminated recycling create additional costs and make waste removal more difficult.

Because Erjavčeva koča is located on the remote Vršič Pass, waste collection is more expensive than in the valley. Communal services charge higher amounts for collecting and transporting waste from such a mountain location, especially because access is more difficult and the hut is far from normal urban infrastructure.

By separating waste properly and taking your own rubbish back to the valley, you help reduce transport costs, protect nature, and support more responsible operation of the mountain hut.

Winter waste problems

In winter, waste management can become even more difficult. When the road to Vršič Pass is covered with snow, closed, icy, or difficult to access, we may not be able to take rubbish down to the valley whenever we would like to.

This means that during winter or bad weather, full bins can become a serious problem. Every visitor who takes their own waste back to the valley helps us keep the hut cleaner, safer, and easier to operate throughout the year.

Why we do not encourage disposable packaging

The good behaviour of mountaineers is to collect all the waste they bring to the mountains and carry it back down to the valley. This is also one of the reasons why we try to avoid unnecessary disposable packaging.

We do not want Triglav National Park to become a place full of plastic bottles, takeaway cups, food wrappers, or abandoned rubbish. For this reason, we do not sell plastic bottles and we do not offer coffee to go.

Help us keep the mountains clean

Erjavčeva koča is a mountain hut in a protected alpine environment, not a city facility with unlimited waste infrastructure. Everything that arrives at the hut must eventually be removed from the hut, often with more work, more transport, and higher costs than visitors may expect.

Please help us keep Vršič Pass, the Julian Alps, and Triglav National Park clean. Take your rubbish with you, separate waste correctly, avoid unnecessary packaging, and never leave garbage in nature.

Thank you for respecting the mountains and helping us preserve this beautiful part of Slovenia for future visitors.