Project Objective:
The aim of the project was to propose a specific charge instrument (variable payments) for municipal waste policy in order to prevent waste generation and separate utilizable municipal waste and an analysis of the consumption possibilities for separated waste on the market.

Brief Summary:

The utilization of secondary raw materials made from waste belongs to one of the key strategies in the Czech Republic. Their aim is to reduce the amount of waste which is stored in landfills or incinerated (with or without using the energy produced). The market decides about the amount of waste used as secondary raw materials in production, because the market consists of a supply of materials suitable for other usage and demand for them. The supply part is represented by the systems of separated usable waste collection organized by municipalities. The demand part is formed by the processing industry which transforms these separated usable elements into secondary raw materials assigned for further use in production. The connecting links between supply and demand are delivery companies – their main business is to transport usable elements from supply to demand. This project is concerned with a detailed analysis of the secondary raw materials market in the Czech Republic.

During project preparation we observed that the present analyses of the Czech Republic’s potential to use secondary raw materials made from waste usually stem from an evaluation of the supply part of the market. They look for the solution to problems such as: How to make citizens separate waste into particular further usable elements? How to set up the system for separating waste to be user friendly? How to generally increase the proportion of usable elements in separated waste collection? The main objective of these strategies is, on the one hand, aspiring to save primary raw materials resources which are depreciated by dumping in landfills or burning, on the other hand decreasing the pressure on the limited capacities dedicated to waste removal.

In an analysis of the secondary raw materials usage less attention is paid to the cost of separated waste collection or the role of separated waste collection in municipal strategies which propose to decrease budget expenses. The demand part is a marginalized aspect of the secondary raw materials market, in other words the role of processing companies that in their production use secondary raw materials produced from waste. However the supply part is absolutely crucial for an analysis of the secondary raw materials market’s absorption capacity and its omission could have fundamental consequences for the real usage of secondary raw materials in production.