Czechs embracing recycling culture says environmental analyst

The Czech Republic has doubled the amount of plastics being recycled in the space of less than a decade. According to the latest Eurostat statistics, Czechs are in fourth place in Europe in terms of overall recycling of packaging waste – and in second place when it comes to recycling plastic PET bottles. But, as Vojtěch Kotecký of the think-tank Glopolis observes, the country still has far to go before it can boast of being a true European leader in the field of recycling.

Photo: Filip Jandourek

“The Czech Republic is one of the leaders when it comes to plastic bottle recycling, and this is the result of a very successful law from 2001, which essentially provided for a network of recycling sites across the country in Czech cities and villages. This enabled people to be able to return their used waste. At the same time, it shows that a major cultural change has occurred across Czech society. Czechs have made recycling part of their everyday lives, and are very happy to contribute to our environmental protection in this way.”

There are recycling bins now close to pretty much most residential areas in the populated areas, right? You have the plastic bin, paper bin, glass container and also drinking carton container. Those are the four common ones…

“When you look at the statistics, you find that the Czech Republic recycles around 30 percent of municipal waste. The same figure for Germany is about 65 percent; it is even more so in other European countries – in Flanders in Belgium it is more than 70 percent. So we lag far behind the progressive and successful European countries like Belgium, Germany and Austria. The reason is that despite the progress in the Czech Republic of the past decade, recycling is still not hugely convenient for many people. While regular bins are positioned in front of most buildings, recycling bins are further away in many cases. And secondly, in most Czech cities, and many villages, it is still almost impossible to recycle so-called biological waste. That means kitchen waste, cut grass, garden leaves and so on. This is a big gap in our recycling system which leads to massive waste of quite a useful resource that ends up in landfills.”

So how come Czechs are so strong in terms of recycling plastics?

Vojtěch Kotecký, photo: Ondřej Vrtiška

“Plastic recycling works relatively well here. It is relatively easy and the recycling network is in place, at least in a rudimentary sense. The key challenge for the government and for municipalities is to provide recycling services that will allow us to make big steps towards the recycling rates of countries like Germany and Austria. I think that we could do that, because even though we have a 30 percent recycling rate in the Czech Republic, we have made large progress – it was something like seven percent in 2000. And plastic bottle recycling is an example that shows that it can be done and that we should improve recycling services so that we can move similarly forward with other materials.