The debate on the need and effectiveness of the proposed mandatory deposit now focuses on meeting the collection and recycling targets for aluminium beverage cans. According to the proponents of mandatory deposit, the Czech Republic will not meet these collection and recycling targets. Waste and recycling experts and municipalities have the opposite view.
Aluminium beverage cans are now included in the collection of all metal packaging, i.e. including steel cans for canned food, foil, etc. Metal packaging waste and even all-metal items are sorted into grey bins for metals only or into yellow bins with plastics. At the end of last year, more than 180 000 of these collection bins were available.
According to data from EKO-KOM, an authorised packaging company, last year an average of 21 kg of metal waste was sorted by each citizen of the Czech Republic. 99% of these sorted metals are recycled. The overall recycling rate of metal packaging was 67%.
So what are the legal targets we need to meet in aluminium collection and recycling?
According to the European Directive on waste and packaging waste, EU Member States must recycle 50% of aluminium in 2025 and 60% in 2030. The Czech Republic has taken advantage of the possibility of an exemption to the recycling targets for selected types of packaging waste material, which the Directive allowed for when transposing it into national legislation. The Czech Packaging Act therefore sets targets for recycling of aluminium packaging (i.e. including beverage cans) at 35% in 2025 and 50% in 2030. As of 2035, recycling will already be at 60%, as in other EU countries.
Now comes a new European regulation to replace the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) has been approved by preliminary agreement by the European Parliament. The final confirmation is expected to take place on 13-14 November 2024. The PPWR has kept the mandatory recycling targets for packaging waste with the Directive unchanged. It did not, however, maintain the existing exemptions. This error was noticed by Czech associations, municipalities and industry associations and at the end of August they sent a request to the European Commission and the European Parliament to correct the PPWR in the framework of the Corrigenda process. The exemptions for packaging waste recycling are also closely related to the collection of packaging waste. The request therefore also asks for the abolition of the mandatory collection level under the PPWR (plastic beverage bottles, beverage cans) for the types of packaging waste that are subject to negotiated and valid exemptions.
If the existing and approved exemptions for Member States are not maintained, waste management plans will be severely undermined and large-scale investments may be considered to be frustrated. New investments in the pipeline may also be damaged. For example, a proposal for further revision of the PPWR has been made by representatives of twenty German associations.
Collection and recycling of aluminium packaging (including beverage cans) should be achieved according to waste and recycling experts and municipalities.
For example, the Czech Waste Management Association states, "Even in the case of recycling metal packaging, we are in the top third of the EU countries. Moreover, municipalities and companies are currently preparing a broad campaign to further intensify the collection of all metal packaging, including beverage cans. We still have plenty of time to meet the final targets and we know how to meet them. So far, as a country, we have always met the applicable packaging targets. Another fact is that the current law in the Czech Republic foresees that all metal packaging will have to be sorted from 2030, i.e. from the ban on landfilling of recoverable waste, either on sorting and re-sorting lines or behind energy recovery sources. This also applies to metals in mixed municipal waste. Virtually all metal packaging from the entire municipal waste stream is sorted at these two technology nodes. Subsequently, virtually the entire volume of metal packaging sorted in this way will be sent for recycling, as is already the case according to official data (currently 99%). This is a rational and cost- and performance-effective solution that will meet the defined commodity targets. The solution is also efficient in that it is comprehensively set up for all commodities, not just a narrow part of them. Investments have been and are being made to achieve this, and the current system is clearly designed to meet this objective."
Increasing the level of recycling of metal packaging (including aluminium cans) with greater use of re-sorting lines and for energy recovery sources of waste is also confirmed by EKO-KOM's 2019 expert text: 'In this process, all metal waste including packaging (not just beverage cans) can be sorted, both magnetic using a magnetic separator and non-magnetic, such as aluminium, using eddy current technology. In addition, some types of plastics can be sorted, PVC, which is not suitable for incineration, but also PET bottles, which are suitable for recycling, and finally, if necessary, glass and some paper can be sorted. We anticipate that by the end of the next decade at least one fifth of the residual mixed municipal waste will pass through such facilities, which will allow, in synergy with energy recovery replacing landfill, to increase the material recovery rate of municipal waste and at the same time increase the recycling rate of packaging waste."
Municipalities also argue for an exemption from the aluminium packaging recycling targets and the ongoing intensification of packaging waste. Olga Dočkalová, mayor and chair of the environmental commission of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, commenting on Minister Hladik's letter to mayors, says: "The letter states that we have to introduce a mandatory deposit system for PET bottles and cans because we will not meet the 2026 collection deadline for beverage containers. The Czech Republic has negotiated an exemption with the European Commission for aluminium until 2035. Each country could apply for one exemption and a number of other Member States have taken advantage of this. This exemption was negotiated by the ministry under former minister Richard Brabec. The ministry currently makes no mention of this and pretends that the exemption does not exist."
(source: obaly21.cz)
