Bins On Every Corner
Authors . City life . Climate Change . Culture . SocietyWhen the twinkling lights of Christmas fade, what remains is not only the memory of joy, but also an increase in waste. Intrigued by the piles of rubbish accumulated in my own home, I made my way to the local bins. Come with me to explore how Czechs are navigating waste sorting in their quest for a more sustainable lifestyle. From colourful bins to less traditional containers and beyond.
Christmas, one of Europe’s biggest holidays, has over the years, along with the celebration of the New Year, become more of a consumerist affair. At the same time, in the Czech Republic, these holidays are sometimes associated with opportunities for house cleaning, wardrobe sorting and charitable activities. And all this produce a lot of waste.
I experienced this myself in the first week of 2024, when my dad and I went to the garbage cans to sort through the piles of our trash. Although it wasn’t the first time my dad and I made such a trip, it was only then that I realised just how much waste we produce as a single family.
Due to the large amount of material, we had to go twice and each time we went at least two places due to overflowing bins. On that occasion I was surprised how many places with bins there actually are in our village, so I decided to take a look at some of them again and bring you a report on how and what Czechs sort their waste.
The first step for our orientation is to distinguish the meaning of the words “collection” and “sorting” of waste. Waste collection is a more general term that includes the collection of waste from legal or natural persons authorised to do business (e.g. waste companies) by the municipality and other entities. This process aims to transfer waste for further recovery or disposal.
In contrast, waste sorting (waste separation, separate collection) is a specific collection process in which the waste stream is separated according to the type and nature of the specific waste. The main purpose is to facilitate specific waste treatment, such as recycling. Source: Samosebou.cz.
The Czechs have already started to sort waste with enthusiasm a few years ago. The systems of colourful bins and containers on every corner testify to their commitment to a more sustainable lifestyle. There are 6 250 villages and towns in Czechia where we can find 838 thousand of containers, and the average distance people have to walk with sorted waste is 87 metres. Source: irozhlas.cz.
According to statistics published by Eko-kom, more than 80% of Czechs regularly sort their waste. Unfortunately, only about 30% of these sorted materials end up in efficient recycling processes. This revelation casts a shadow on the overall positive picture of a green and ecological approach to waste in the Czech Republic.
Eko-kom holds the exclusive right to sort and recycle packaging in the Czech Republic. Due to that, all companies supplying packaged goods to the Czech market use its services. As of December 2022,
6 176 municipalities and towns in the Czech Republic were involved in the Eko-kom system, which enables waste sorting for 99% of the population.
The company reports, data for year 2022, that the highest level of recycling has traditionally been achieved for paper packaging, where it reached 91%. Glass packaging followed with a recycling rate of 85%, while metal packaging was recycled at 63%.
As for plastic packaging, there was an increase in the material recycling rate from 43% to 46% (between years 2021 and 2022), which the company describes as positive news. The remaining 39 percent of plastic packaging was recovered through energy recovery, for a total of 85 % of plastics recycled. Source: irozhlas.cz.
The municipal district of Prague Reporyje, where I live and sort waste, has an area of 9.87 km² and approximately 6 thousand inhabitants. There are dozens of publicly accessible places and even more waste sorting containers that are also accompanied by private black bins for municipal waste at each house. Some households, including ours, also have a brown bin for bio-waste.
These private bins are a convenient distance down the street in front of the house and are regularly, once or twice a week, taken out by garbage trucks. If a person wants to sort, he or she is forced to take a few extra steps and bring, or take by car.
The streets of Czech cities sometimes resemble colour palettes, where each shade carries its own meaning. At the heart of this waste adventure are the necessary protagonists already mentioned: the garbage containers. Let’s introduce them now:
The first is blue for paper and cardboard: Our blue sorting clutches are the right place for everything that belongs to the paper and cardboard category: cardboard boxes, newspapers, old books and more. At this time of year, they are almost constantly overflowing with gift boxes and wrapping paper.
Next in line is yellow for plastics: a trip into the world of sorting plastics is all about the shiny yellow containers. Beverage bottles, food packaging and plastic bags enter the recycling cycle thanks to them. . The onslaught of these plastic guzzlers could ease this year as the Czech Republic may see the introduction of backed-up plastics.
These two main ones are followed by green containers for glass where glass bottles and glasses have their own green paradise. At the same time, this bin tends to be accompanied or divided in half with its white sister, into which only pure glass is thrown.
Given the rate at which Czechs consume alcohol, these bins are often full. Especially after events such as Christmas and New Year’s Eve. However, in my opinion, glass sorting is one of the more fun ones, as we are always rewarded with the mighty sound of shattering glass after throwing it into the container. On the other hand, I believe that people who live in the immediate vicinity of the glass containers do not suffer from the same enthusiasm, because it is a very loud sound.
The aforementioned brown bin for bio-waste is now again on the scene: Coffee grounds, grass clippings, dead flowers and other organic waste are finding their way into the brown world of composting. Not every household has one, but almost every municipality or district has its own composting plant, where bio-waste can be exported free of charge up to a certain amount.
However, that’s not all. Sorting in the Czech Republic is not just about containers of traditional colours. It is true that the availability of less-followed bins is lower, but there are still often used in many villages and towns. Let’s introduce them too:
Red for metals: the red bin is a burial ground for anything metal such as drink cans, aluminium packaging, metal caps and more.
Orange for batteries and old electronics: safe and responsible handling of batteries is certainly crucial for the environment. However, in the absence of easy sorting, these materials end up in regular municipal waste, where they cannot be effectively recycled.
Charity Containers for Textiles: Charity textile containers can play an important role in today’s sustainable times. Old clothes that would otherwise end up in landfill or being eaten by moths are finding new homes and providing help to those in need. Any undamaged textiles can be thrown into these bins, which are later sorted and donated to charity.
Purple for Used Oils: Protecting our planet from contamination is one of the goals of waste sorting, hence the new purple bin. Used household oils, whether from the kitchen or motor oil, are better sorted than simply flushed down the drain. If you don’t have that sorting option, just wipe the oils with disposable or pre-used wipes that you throw in the bin.
Grey Hazardous Waste Bin: A grey bin is provided for waste that does not fall into the normal sorting categories, such as chemicals, medicines or other hazardous substances. They are mainly placed in places where increased production of these substances is expected, such as factories or hospitals. It is very rare to come across them.
The Pink Bin for Cardboard Packaging: when it comes to sorting cardboard packaging, the pink bin becomes your friend. Nevertheless, it is often possible to throw the cardboard packaging into the yellow bin for plastics to save emissions when disposing of the waste. This method of using one container for several similar materials is called multi-comodity container collection.
It is clear from the previous list that the conditions for waste sorting in the Czech Republic are favourable and perhaps that is why the Czechs are masters in this field. On the contrary, what we can still work on is responsible and careful sorting. Some people are still, often out of confusion or laziness…, throwing unsuitable materials into the wrong bins, which makes the waste treatment process more difficult and ineffective.
In my opinion, it’s great how successful the Czechs are. However, don’t they sometimes waste energy unnecessarily? Sorting is only the first step in the waste treatment ecosystem, followed by recycling, and we don’t shine as much at that. Often, some sorted materials end up in the same incinerators and landfills, even though they could be effectively recycled. But let us keep this other side of the coin as a topic for another time.
Useful Sources:
(You need to translate websites in your browser)
Web samosebou.cz about sorting principles and useful tips.
Web peníze.cz about the business side of waste sorting and recycling
Web nebaleno.eu about the differences between sorting and recycling.
Online magazine irozhlas.cz on the possible future introduction of plastic (pet) bottles
Online magazine idnes.cz brought an interesting article full of numbers about how Czechs sort waste
Interesting Videos:
Thanks for reading, I’ll look forward to next time and sort the waste.
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