Generation, Recovery and Disposal of Waste

The statistical survey found that the total generation of waste in the Czech Republic was 24.6 million tonnes in 2006, i.e. down by 1 % on 2005. A decrease was recorded especially
in waste generated by enterprises, municipal waste remained roughly at the same level.

The total production of hazardous waste in 2006 stood at 1.3 million tonnes (1.4 million tonnes in 2005). The production of hazardous waste has been constantly dropping since 2004.

1. Waste generation by enterprises

Enterprises generated 21.3 million tonnes of waste (21.8 million tonnes in 2005), of which 1.3 million tonnes was hazardous waste. The fall in waste generated by enterprises against 2005 was recorded in agriculture and forestry (32 %), waste from mining and quarrying (27 %), energy (10 %) and construction (8 %). On the other hand production of industrial waste and waste production from transport increased year-on-year. The drop of total production in enterprises by 2 % on 2005 was caused by the exclusion of some kinds of waste from the waste registration because they were used by the waste producer as a raw material for own output of goods. In 2006 for e.g. granulate made from fly ash was excluded from the waste registration in energy supply; it was then used as a product for technical recultivation of mud settling ponds (in 2005 it was still given in the register as waste with the management code – use of waste for recultivation).

By waste type, the most waste produced, in terms of volume in enterprises, was soil (32 % of total waste generated by enterprises) waste code 170504. The second place had fly ash 100 102 (5 %
of the total production) and on the third place was iron 170405 (4 % of the total production).

It has been observed in the long term that the crucial share of waste production is generated only by a small group of enterprises. In 2006 it was found out in the enterprises sphere that
75% of the total waste generation in the CR is allotted to 295 enterprises. It concerns enterprises with the production volume more than 10 000 tonnes per year. Graph 7 shows the share of enterprises on the total waste generation by volume of waste generated in enterprises in 2006.

Table 1 shows the generation of waste by selected CZ-NACE divisions in 2006, Table 2 gives the generation of waste by region of the head office of enterprises. Graphs 1 and 2 show waste generated per inhabitant by these CZ-NACE divisions.

2. Waste produced on the territory of municipalities

Municipalities registered 3.4 million tonnes of waste in 2006. Out of that, production of municipal and trade waste was 3.0 million tonnes (i.e. 296 kg per inhabitant). Apart from municipal waste, municipalities register also other types of waste generated on the territory of the municipality, particularly construction waste, waste from waste water treatment facilities and other waste not classified to municipal waste. The production of municipal waste increased year-on-year (in 2005 it was 288 kg per inhabitant). By type of collection, a growth was recorded in all types of collections
of municipal waste compared to 2005, i.e. both the amount of common collected waste and collected bulky municipal waste, separately collected waste compounds and also in waste from municipal services. As a positive factor can be considered particularly the increasing share of separate collection of waste in the CR in 2006. It has been a long-term favourable trend of increasing amount
of separately collected waste. Compared to 2002 the amount of separately collected waste per inhabitant increased from 16 kg to 32 kg in 2006. The production of municipal and trade waste
in 2002-2006 by type of collection is shown in Table 3.

3. Waste treatment

A total of 27.4 million tonnes of waste was treated in 2006. This amount includes waste generated in the reference year plus waste taken from stores or imported and treated in the same year.
Out of the total, 24.2 million tonnes was recovered or disposed of by units measured; 3.2 million tonnes was passed to other entities outside the sample. Tables 6 to 8 and Table 10 show how the waste produced, stored and received was recovered or disposed of by waste producers and recipients.

In 2006, 23.6 % of all waste (from enterprises and municipalities) was recovered (R codes) and
22.2 % of all waste was disposed (D codes). The share of recovery and disposal operations favours recovery. In 2005 disposal operations prevailed over recovery operations. Landfilling remains the most frequent way of waste disposal. From the total amount of disposed of waste, 80.7 % of waste was disposed of by landfilling and by other forms of deposits into or onto land (in 2005 73.4 %). Incineration of all wastes (with or without the use of energy) made up 719 thousand tonnes in 2006, which represents a 7 % increase compared to 2005.

As to hazardous waste, 10.4 % of the total amount of waste disposed of in 2006 was landfilled, i.e. up by 1.4 % on 2005. 25.1 % of hazardous waste was recovered (25.7 % in 2005). In total, 43.1 %
of hazardous waste was disposed of (47.9 % in 2005). A drop (by 10 % on 2005) of the amount of landfilled hazardous waste can be considered as a positive fact. Incineration of hazardous waste (with or without the use of energy) on the contrary increased by 38 % compared to the last year.
Table 7 gives the types of hazardous waste treatment in 2002 - 2006.

In municipal waste treatment, compared to 2005 the amount of landfilled waste increased from 72.2 % of total production in 2005 to 89.8 % in 2006. So in 2005 209 kg of municipal waste
per inhabitant was landfilled, in 2006 it was already 266 kg. The share of incineration of municipal waste on the contrary dropped last year from 13 % in 2005 to 10 % in 2006. In 2005, 37 kg of waste per inhabitant was incinerated; in 2006 it was only 30 kg. Table 9 shows landfilling and incineration of waste in 2002 - 2006.

4. Consumption of wastes as secondary raw materials

The established consumption of selected wastes as secondary raw materials for manufacture
of selected products in observed enterprises (glassworks, metallurgical works, construction companies, etc., since 2004 including paper mills, cement mills and textile factories) was 4.5 million tonnes in 2006, i.e. 0.6 million tonnes up on 2005. Consumption of construction wastes, iron-containing waste and waste paper increased the most. Also the favourable trend of increasing consumption of some wastes containing coloured metals continued in 2006. For example consumption increased in wastes containing copper from 4 thousand tonnes in 2002 to 37 thousand tonnes in 2006. Table 11 shows for which selected products and in what amount was the waste used as a secondary raw material in 2002 - 2006.

5. Imports and exports of waste

According to the statistical waste survey, the Czech Republic imported 170.7 thousand tonnes of waste in 2006 (115.3 thousand tonnes in 2005), of which 168.2 thousand tonnes from the EU member states and 2.5 thousand tonnes from the non-EU countries. It was predominantly metallic wastes, rubber and plastic wastes, paper and paperboard and textile wastes.

Export of wastes in 2006 made up 1.2 million tonnes, of which 98.9 % was exported to the EU countries and 1.1 % to the non-EU countries. Among the most exported wastes belong, similarly
as in the case of imported wastes, metallic wastes, paper and plastic.