Czech Republic's effort in plastic recycling 'outstanding' among EU members

Czech Republic, according to information from EU's statistical office, has overtaken Germany as the leader in plastic recycling in EU.

Germany was traditionally EU's recycling champion, but its Eastern neighbor managed to recycle 44% of all PET bottles and other plastic packaging in 2006, 3% more than Germany.

A more recent data offered by EKO-KOM, a company that coordinates collection and recycling of package waste in the Czech Republic, the share of recycled plastic last year exceeded 50%, which was a double of what EU required (no less than 25%). According to Šárka Nováková, the EKO-KOM spokeswoman, an average Czech recycled almost 50 kg of plastic, glass and paper last year.

Apart from these encouraging figures, environmental group in Czech reminded that the country should pay closer attention to the dumping of kitchen waste and electronics. Ivo Kropáček from eco-watch group Hnutí Duha commented that the recycling campaigns usually focus on the collection of plastics, paper and metals but these only make up a third of household waste, while biological waste in fact makes up a half.

The EU is planning to tighten its recycling regulations and proposing every member state to recycle a half of all municipal waste and 70% of construction and demolition waste by 2020. A further cap is also considered to restrict EU members in 2012 not to generate more waste than they did in 2008.