Where to with biowaste? Prague wants to build another composting plant. Holds more tons
The Sliven composting plant will celebrate its operation in a short time. On that occasion, politicians introduced its operation by media representatives in the middle of this week. During the year, about a thousand individuals and several companies that can use the local services from October brought about 900 tons of biowaste here. But the total capacity is “only” seven thousand tons.
Praguers have a free volume of 250 kilograms per month. People living outside the capital pay 600 crowns for a ton of material. Unlike bio-waste, people receive a ticket and after a year they can come and get ready-made compost for use in their garden in a ratio of 5: 1.
Only grass, leaves, branches, wood, fruits and vegetables are allowed for compost. “We do not accept stumps, soil or stones,” said Mikuláš Němec, head of the composting plant, according to whom completely unexpected things sometimes appear among biowaste – for example, plastics or skis.
“For example, a special digger that ensures the correct processing of compost materials, a drum waste sorter, a high-speed waste crusher or a loader with a retractable arm for material handling helps with the processing of biowaste,” the press release said. So far, the city has invested around 16.5 million crowns in the composting plant for the purchase of equipment.
And yet the imported bio-waste has a specific odor that can resemble manure, the composting plant does not stink so much. Smell only a large amount that rots. It is therefore important that the whole process takes place by compression, ie by the access of air. In addition, there are no houses in the area, the closest is the Prague ring road.
But what if biowaste continues to grow? Where with him then? The leadership of the capital is solving this situation. Already in September, in cooperation with Vin Agro, a smaller composting plant should be opened in Jilemnická Street on the border of the Prague – Kbely and Vinoř city districts, up to two thousand tons. A big relief would then be a large composting plant, where it would be possible to process up to 15,000 tons per year. The effort for the “Viennese model”, where they have a capacity of up to a thousand tons in a suburban locality, encounters the ascension of such large plots of land.
Councilor Jana Plamínková (STAN / Trojkoalice) and the head of the municipal waste department Radim Polák talked about the project in Prague 14. Nevertheless, the local town hall has not discussed any material yet, and is already solving one controversial plan in the area.
Eco Crystal wants to build a facility for the processing of contaminated soil on the land adjacent to the planned composting plant, according to the deputy mayor of Prague 14, Ilona Picková (Greens), it would be better if the planned composting plant was built there. But the city has been leasing the plots to the company since 2013, and it does not appear that the municipality will terminate the contract in the near future.
The selected location for the new composting plant is separated from the nearest development by a gardening colony. In addition, new high-capacity equipment should have technology against potential risks.
According to Polák, the municipality would like to take over the operation of special brown containers in Prague services, where people will throw away 7,000 tons of bio-waste. Then they could be free, just like other waste containers.