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Praha/Brusel - The Czech Republic is not going to become a country where half of Europe delivers waste.
Czech negotiators had a huge success in Brussels when they managed to include the right of each country to put a ban on the import of foreign waste in the new European waste directive.
The Czech Republic is the country that has had big troubles because of the import of foreign, mainly German, waste.
Towards the end of 2005, 30,000 tons of waste were illegally imported from Germany to various places in the Czech Republic.
At first, the EC wanted to liberalise the waste trade. "After tough negotiations, we managed to push through that member states will have the right to restrict or even put a ban on the import of waste," Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursík stated.
Disappointment from Visegrad Four
Bursík was surprised by the fact that the Czech proposal was backed by none of the Visegrad Four countries which besides the Czech Republic include Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.
"It is surprising that none of the Visegrad Four member states supported our attitude even though they also have negative experiences with waste import," Bursík said.
He added that in the end support was found somewhere else and the Czech position was pushed through even after the half-day battle at last year's June meeting of the EU Environmental Council.
"An enormous success is also the fact that we managed to defend this article of the new directive also in the whole course of the legislative proceedings," Bursík added.
Waste does not disappear even in incinerators
So far, European legislature did not allow EU member states to put a ban on the import of waste meant for waste disposal and combustion. However, the EC included maximum liberalisation of international transports of waste to incinerators in the draft of the new directive.
The final version of the directive includes the possibility of ban. However, it has to be in accordance with the national waste disposal plans.
In reality this means that the Czech Republic will be allowed to keep on restricting and banning the import of waste not to dumps only but also to incinerators.
"What matters is that imported waste does not displace domestic waste. This would lead to a huge press on the construction of new capacities and the Czech Republic could become the main Central European incinerator due to low prices," Bursík claimed.
During the European negotiations, the Environment Ministry defended the principle according to which waste should be disposed of as close as possible to the place of its origin, i.e. definitely in the country of its origin.
"Trucks full of waste cruising Europe in the direction toward the countries with lower waste combustion prices are not our ideal," Bursík claims.
Even combusted waste leaves behind about one third of its weight in the form of ashes. Trucks themselves are another environmental burden.
