EMPRESS, o.p.s. - Platform for more efficient use of resources and sustainable consumption and production organized on 10 December 2019 a business brunch of the Czech Association of Circular Economy (CAObH) entitled "From sorting to real recycling" with the main focus on plastics. Over 25 representatives from CAObH member organisations as well as other companies and members of the press attended the brunch. Two themes resonated: changing the recycling measuring point under new legislation and barriers to industry recycling efforts.
Sorting is often referred to in the media as recycling, but this is not correct. Under the current legislation, the treatment of sorted waste for material recovery is considered recycling, but under the new rules, only the input of treated waste into final production will be considered recycling. While the sorting system is well set up, mainly thanks to the work of EKO-KOM, and people have learned to sort, thus diverting large amounts of waste from landfill, subsequent recycling in the production of the final product is now taking place only to a limited extent, only for certain types of plastics and under economically difficult conditions. The recycling industry often does not have the conditions to compete with primary producers. And this goes against the principles of the circular economy, which is about returning secondary raw materials to production, not about depleting increasingly scarce natural resources.
As Zdeněk Horsák, CEO of SUEZ CZ, said at the meeting, "The Czech Republic is dependent on imports of raw materials. We are dependent on raw materials for our production. And instead of preparing ourselves and using the secondary raw materials we have here, discussions are populistically held over whether it is acceptable for a citizen to increase the price of a garbage can by 40 crowns a year."
The meeting also discussed the issue of plastic waste on a global scale. The trade in plastic waste across continents appears to be a major environmental problem, as a huge amount of plastic that is not recycled for technological or economic reasons ends up in the wild.
In contrast, there are companies that are committed to recycling and have become pioneers. The recycling industry in the Czech Republic was represented at the meeting by three companies, Plastic Union, Transform a.s. Lázně Bohdaneč and SUEZ CZ. Each of them focuses on a slightly different segment: Plastic Union produces regranulate from municipal plastic waste that it collects from re-sorting lines. It is able to separate multi-species plastics into single-species materials, and the resulting regranulate is up to 99% pure. SUEZ CZ also produces regranulate of similar quality, but has focused on industrial LDPE waste and has recently, in cooperation with the authorised packaging company (AOS) EKO-KOM, gradually added a proportion of plastic from municipal sorted plastic. Transform a.s. Lázně Bohdaneč, also in cooperation with AOS EKO-KOM, uses sorted plastic waste from municipal sources in its production for the production of plastic benches, fence posts, plastic tiles and other products for the house and garden.
Recycling industry representatives agreed that there is insufficient support for the wider use of recycled products and recyclates. They identified a number of points that would contribute to a greater implementation of the principles of the circular economy and the saving of primary resources. These points may be part of a future legislative initiative that the CABObH is working on. The approval of a new Waste Act is the absolute minimum to establish the basic conditions for a circular economy, such as the reduction of landfilling of recoverable raw materials, which still occurs to a huge extent. Further legislation will be needed in the future to focus on returning waste to production.
The CABH supports the reuse of recycled materials in manufacturing and is convinced that there is considerable and untapped market space for this approach in the Czech Republic. In parallel with this topic, the topic of eco-design of products and their packaging arises, a topic closely related to the marketing of consumer goods. This meeting kicked off a series of joint workshops between the CCAObH and EMPRESS to promote current topics in the circular economy.
