"We'll significantly raise the funds for products which are being developed or close to being placed on the market," he told the Committee for Infrastructure, the Environment and Spatial Planning.

The committee discussed Slovenia's draft stance on the EU's directive to reduce the impact of single-use plastic products on the environment, backing it unanimously.

Zajc said Slovenia supported the Union's proposed measures designed to eliminate some single-use plastic products.

It thus advocates a different treatment of products made of coated paper and foil laminated cardboard or plastic products at EU level, depending on their impact on the environment.

It supports the goal to separately collect 90% of plastic bottles by 2025 and provisions to expand producers' responsibilities for the product's entire lifespan in a cost-efficient manner.

Slovenia will also aim to phase out the use of lightweight plastic carrier bags in 2019, "because we are more ambitious than the EU", said Zajc.

He said that an average Slovenian used 90 plastic bags a year, whereas the EU goal was to reduce the figure under 50 or to 40 by 2025.

For Slovenia to become a leader in alternatives to plastics, he said the industry will have to change, stressing that all the measures are being discussed with businesses.

Noting the Environment Ministry seemed to be given more weight under the new government, committee members were happy the country had gotten down to tackling the issue of waste more seriously.

Željko Cigler of the opposition Left would also like Slovenia to phase out filters for tobacco products in 2019, so it plans to put forward an amendment at the plenary.

He also said that a plan to ban single-use food containers and glasses would be made next year, to be followed by a ban on all single-use plastic products and certain fishing gear, noting the party had already coordinated its stance with the environment minister.