Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic are municipalities technically and also legally responsible for household waste collection and sorting. There is one Packaging recovery organization - EKO-KOM. This organization does finance costs of municipal separate collection of packaging waste from households. The collection network is currently made up of more than 241 thousand containers for separate collection of paper, plastic, glass and beverage cartons and also partly for metal.

Legal basis

Directive EC/94/62 about packaging and packaging waste

1997-2001

  • Waste Act no.125/1997 - §18 and §19
  • „Semi-voluntary“ take-back and recovery obligations
  • Regulation form of the Ministry of Environment
  • nr. 338/1997 – recovery rate of packaging
  • Government Act 1999 - list of recovery packaging
  • „Voluntary Agreement“ between Ministry of Environment and CICPEN

2002

  • Packaging Act 477/01 – takes effect on January 1, 2002
  • 28. 03. 2002: EKO-KOM Authorisation
  • Ministry of Environment directs a new conditions for    AUTHORIZED PACKAGING COMPANY
  • New obligation from the certificate of authorization è new Contracts with companies and municipalities, new fees and subsidies structure, new reporting system 

Directive EC 2004/12 about packaging and packaging waste

2004

  • Amendment 94/2004– takes effect on March 3, 2004 

2006

  • Amendment 66/2006 – takes effect on March 15, 2006

Fact and figures

Data 2014

Population

10.5 mil.

No. of local authorities

6,251 municipalities (6,073 covered by system)
99% inhabitants covered by system

No. of companies in system

20,277 membres

Packaging introduced to the market

2,979,976 tons total amount of licensed packaging

921,799 tons of one way licensed packaging

Recovered waste

Recycled
690,047 tons packaging waste

Types of packaging

Household and commercial

 

The Financial income of EKO-KOM comes from fillers/producers/importers who do conclude contracts with EKO-KOM. Payments to EKO-KOM are based on quarterly reported amount of packaging placed to the market in tons. Different payments are due to compliance scheme per ton of packaging depending on packaging material and packaging purpose (household and industrial packaging do differ substantially).

 

All EKO-KOM income is used to ensure packaging waste recovery as EKO-KOM is a non profit company. Main part of income is used to cover additional costs incurred in municipalities.

Packaging organisation/s in Czech Republic: