Slovenians use so many cemetery candles that waste-processing plants simply cannot process, especially after Eko Plastkom, one of the two companies processing waste cemetery lights and candles, burned down last year.
While not all waste candles had been processed before the fire, they have really started piling up after the plant in the north-east was destroyed.
According to the latest data by the Environment Ministry, there are 950 tonnes of waste candles currently stored at public waste collection utilities.
But considering that All Saint's Day is just around the corner, the ministry expects the figure to jump to 1,500 tonnes by the end of the year.
However, the fire is not the only reason for waste candles to be accumulating at waste collection facilities, as four of them have been exploiting a loophole to avoid costs of disposing waste candles, according to Sebastijan Zupanc, the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (GZS) public utilities department.
The ministry should have determined the amount of waste candles the companies should have collected, but has "simply failed to do so far", he has told the STA.
To deal with the problems of waste candles and packaging waste, which has also been piling up at waste collection facilities, the ministry has drawn up an emergency measure - an emergency bill on waste management which will allow it to pay for the disposal of the accumulated waste.
But until then, heaps of waste candles will remain in the courtyards of collection facilities, where they pose a major environmental risk.
A potential fire would release a number of toxins in the air, while hot weather is enough for the remaining paraffin to leak into the ground.
Nevertheless, there is a light at the end of the tunnel: as awareness develops among people, more and more decide to replace the plastic cemetery candles with alternatives such as cemetery lanterns, electric candles and other items of remembrance.
