Authorities powerless to block villagers from burning plastics & waste in home furnaces

Burning waste including plastics in one’s stove or wood/coal furnace is not uncommon in Czech villages, despite damages to air quality and obvious health risks. According to sources such as the daily Právo, burning inappropriate materials is practiced by thousands around the country, without fear of repercussion. The reason? Current legislation does not allow the authorities to intervene in the case of private homes: that is something they can only do in the case of small businesses.

Burning milk cartons or plastics in wood/coal furnaces is fineable under the law in the Czech Republic but only if you have a private business. Home or cottage owners are free to burn whatever they like in wood/coal stoves, regardless of the risks. Each year the Environmental Inspectorate receives numerous complaints, and although some environmentalists do not think the burning of improper materials is as widespread as some have reported, when it happens it is always serious. Yet local mayors still have few means other than informal powers of persuasion to convince offenders to stick to normal fuel. That contrasts sharply with small companies, afforded no such “luxury”: there, under the law, inspectors can check furnaces at their own discretion and issue fines if need be from a paltry 500 to a hefty 500,000 crowns. Vojtěch Kotecký - an environmental activist at Friends of the Earth – says in order to improve the situation with private owners, new steps need to be taken.

“First of all the government should help people invest in things like the weatherisation of their homes and solar power, so that they can cut their heating and fuel bills without burning waste materials. Along with that, in some cases the government is thinking about providing local mayors or environmental inspectorates with special powers to allow them to intervene on behalf of local peoples’ health in certain cases. One proposal which was raised by one of the regional governments suggested that local mayors would have the power to simply stop people from burning waste materials in their stove. I think it would be a popular measure, stopping a few individuals from using their stoves as waste incinerators.”

The Environment Ministry has now prepared new legislation fighting air pollution, that would allow for regular controls of home furnaces; if enacted home owners could still refuse to allow inspectors in, but would be subject to the same fine as if they were found to have been burning dangerous materials.