Questions to the Ministry of the Environment in connection with the new waste regulations
1. How will the value of 6.5 MJ/kg be determined OBJECTIVELY? We consider it inappropriate for landfill operators to determine calorific value only by their subjective estimation.
Further questions or comments:
- Who, according to the Ministry of Environment, is competent to estimate the calorific value of waste at a landfill, whether it is greater or less than 6.5 MJ/kg? (Seriously, compactorist?? - they have no idea what that is. )
- On the basis of what parameters can this estimate be made (can any indicator be proposed by the Ministry of the Environment)?
- Many of the trucks bringing waste to the landfill are closed and the contents can only be checked after they have been emptied. In the event of a dispute, what should be done if the generator claims that the waste in the pile at the landfill is not his waste?
- In the event of a dispute over the calorific value of waste brought to the landfill, who has the final say?
- What will be the methods of determination in the event of a dispute?
- At whose expense will any analyses and analyses be carried out?
2. Will the Ministry of the Environment take into account the situation related to discards caused by objective technological factors both on the sorting lines (improperly disposed waste normally accounts for up to 15%, see the methodological note) and in recycling technologies? The better the quality of the regranulate/agglomerate/flakes, the greater the rejects from the pretreatment process before the final product is produced. Part of the rejects can be used for other types of recycling e.g. mixed plastics etc. However, part of the waste has no use like flotation and washing waste (due to the moisture, even after centrifugation - cannot be used for TAP production or energy recovery). A separate chapter is the possible concentration of PVC in discards (labels, PVC packaging ...) above the limits allowed in energy recovery facilities. Realistically, there is a risk that recycling technologies focused on the production of high quality regranulates/flakes/agglomerates will not be willing to accept sorted waste from sorted collection in their facilities and will focus only on the treatment of production waste.
Further questions or comments:
- At present, about 20-30% of the plastics from the sorting lines can be sold for material recycling.Only 15% of the impurities from the collected municipal plastics and 30% of the plastic rejects are unusable, which is significantly more than the 25% considered for energy recovery.
There is no energy capacity in the Czech Republic even for a higher % for 30% of the separated and currently unusable plastics on the market.4 existing WEEE refuse to incinerate high calorific waste and cement plants require a guaranteed quality input of up to 0.5% of chlorinated substances. It is difficult to ensure such parameters in municipal plastic separate collection.
- Who, where and at whose expense will keep the sorted 25-35% of plastics as malt stock for which there is currently no material end?
- Who and how will be responsible for safe storage, i.e. that it will not burn? And if so, how and what will the damage be reported and will there be an obligation to investigate any such incident properly? The CIE investigates even the slightest non-compliance for damage to water, air, etc. by entities that are obliged to comply with the limits, but I am not aware of any determination of damage, e.g. to air, caused by the burning of landfills, but also by other fires.
- How will these stored quality-sorted plastics be recorded as part of the municipality's obligations?
- How long do they have to be stored if no end cap can be found for them?
- Can the municipality count them towards material recycling?
3. On point 2 of the Ministry of the Environment's methodological instruction on transitional provisions of 23 December 2020
"Certain obligations of the operator of the installation": according to par. 14 para. 1 of the previous Law 185/2001 Coll., this is the problem when installations are operated until the end of the validity of the consent issued under the previous law. If the operator applies for a new permit six months before the end of the validity of the consent, he can operate the facility until the regional authority decides on the new permit. These operators will simply have their old consent expire on, for example, 31 March 2021 and it will not help them to have submitted their application in advance of the end of the year (this procedure will be stopped) or immediately at the beginning of the year. They will not receive a new permit in time, mainly because of the lack of implementing regulations, where neither the state administration nor the operators know the final content of the operating regulations, the procedure for assigning the ID number ... (some implementing regulations are not even in the comment procedure, so it is impossible to know what new things will appear in them).
It has already been suggested by the regional authorities that they will not issue any new permits for at least six months for these very reasons!!
Can the Ministry of the Environment, by its instruction, reject this arbitrary suspension of the exercise of state administration by the Regional Authorities? According to existing data, 2020 was a record year for waste production for a number of reasons. And the lack of infrastructure for material recycling is just a consequence of past years when the easiest way to dispose of the recoverable components of waste was to landfill them.
Further questions or comments:
- Is it currently possible to submit an application for a significant change to the IP to the CA (OŽP) and to process the documents according to the old implementing legislative standards?
- Can the CA issue an opinion on such an application?
- If so, will it be necessary to rework all the documents again after the new implementing regulations - decrees are issued?
4. Will the Ministry of the Environment reconsider the limits set for what percentage of the outputs (discards from refining lines) can be used for energy recovery or landfilled? The barriers today are both technological and commercial (selling price). The application of the limits set TODAY may lead to the closure of refineries due to the economic impossibility of operating them.
Such strict parameters can only be set if the state creates the conditions for these limits to be met (e.g. subsidies to provide more modern re-sorting technologies). Modern lines are capable of achieving 50 to 60% efficiency, but there must be capacity to handle the quantities. We would add that the solution to this problem is not to take advantage of the new legislation to keep, for example, the now 'unusable' plastic film in an 'intermediate depot' for up to 3 years. This is the route recently taken by Poland, and the result, among other things, has been fires in plastic warehouses in municipal districts.
5. The increase in the amount of e.g. infectious or hazardous waste is currently also due to insufficient infrastructure for the management and disposal of this waste, will the MoE take measures to address this?
6. How collection companies should proceed in relation to the registration and classification of beverage cartons under the new waste code 200151 in connection with the new legislation. Beverage cartons were originally recorded under packaging i.e. 15 codes. Under the new legislation, no waste can be collected from municipalities other than under the 20 code. It will take some time for the new waste codes to be approved in the operating schedules of the facilities. Every facility is different, not all have the facilities to store NC until the codes are approved. In some places this commodity is collected in bags, in some places it is collected in separate bins, and in some places it is collected mixed with another commodity. If they collect NK from the separate containers/bins designated for its collection as plastic during plastic collection, it will have a negative impact in the collection and recycling records of this commodity.
7. Will waste management company staff who are in direct contact with waste during waste management be included in the crisis infrastructure in relation to vaccination at COVID 19?
