Garbage cans became more expensive in Prague. There are more ways to reduce fees, such as biowaste
Reach for people and you will change their behavior. This could be called the development that started in Prague after the New Year. Following the amendment of waste and fee legislation, the City of Prague amended its own waste decree with effect from 1 January 2022. According to it, the fee no longer derives a fee according to the size of the black bin, but every liter of the same municipal waste is charged.
“The uniform setting for one liter of collection container in the amount of CZK 0.50 ensures the principle of equality, where each taxpayer pays the same rate regardless of the type of development in the city,” informs the city in a letter sent to property owners in a mailbox with a link to the Internet where they can at calculator easily calculate how much money will be newly paid.
Most households will pay extra, but some will improve according to the municipality, even with the current waste habits. “A family house living for 1 to 2 people with a container with a capacity of 80 liters with an export of 1 × 14 days will be paid in the order of 2022 less than CZK 2021 in 2022. with exports 3 times a week, here each person pays CZK 420 more per year, “gives model examples by the spokesman of the City Hall. of the City of Prague Vít Hofman.
However, according to him, consistent sorting can reduce the capacity of garbage cans, following the example of the motto “The more I sort, the less I pay” and thus further reduce the amount of the fee.
Some households that used to throw bio-waste in brown bins will save even more. Biowaste disposal is within 15 meters of the dumping site (By this I mean the distance from the permanent delivery of containers from the place where the collection takes place to their dump, ie to the garbage truck, note. Red.) now free. “I live in a family house with a small garden. Once every two weeks we have mixed waste transported and biowaste for at least five years. We like the change because we will pay less, “praises Václav F.
However, even with a smaller collection of money for biological waste, Prague will “earn” on the new decree. In 2020, it received 951 million crowns for the removal of black and brown inhabitants from the population. Data for 2021 are not yet available, but this year, according to Hofman’s spokesman, the collection of fees will certainly be higher and the change in the conditions in the collection of bio-waste will not affect this.
“The change in the fee will generate an increase in income on the part of the city of hundreds of millions of crowns. This is not exactly predictable, because the amount of the fee collection will depend on the number of liters actually collected in a given calendar year, “he says. Hofman. So far, according to him, the number of containers for mixed waste has increased by about a thousand each year.
Since January, we have registered 3,532 new applicants for the delivery of biowaste containers, and their number is literally increasing for us every minute.
According to collection companies that collect waste in the capital, this year may be different. “Many owners are reducing the volume of mixed municipal waste. We register more requests to reduce the frequency of collection or smaller types of mixed municipal waste containers. This is probably in response to a change in the calculation of the waste fee, “believes Pavla Ivácková, a spokeswoman for AVE CZ odpadové hospodářství, which collects waste from less than a third of households in Prague.
According to her, homeowners evaluate the free collection of bio-waste positively and have ordered almost a thousand containers for bio-waste since the beginning of the year.
A similar development is also recorded by the largest waste company, Pražské služby, which binds about two thirds of the metropolis, both mixed municipal waste (SKO) and sorted waste.
“In general, the amount of waste has been growing for several years, but we will not dare to predict whether this trend will continue. We are interested in a change in the reduction of the container volume or the frequency of SKO collection, and in connection with the change in quantity, collection programs will have to change. We are not able to specify the scope of the changes at this time, because a new order is still being made, “describes the situation of Prague Services spokesman Radim Mana.
survey
Will the new waste charges force you to reduce the amount and sort it more carefully than before?
A total of 230 readers voted.
The other two companies, Komwag, a city cleanliness and maintenance company, and Ipodec – a clean city, did not comment on the editorial office’s questions.
At the end of last millennium, Prague had over 122 collection containers for mixed waste and over 24,000 containers for sorted waste, such as glass, paper, plastics, beverage cartons and metal. At the end of November, it had about 16,000 bio-waste bins. By mid-January alone, that number had risen by about a fifth thanks to the waiver of the fee.
“Data for December 2021 are not yet available from collection companies. Since January 2022, we have been registering 3,532 new applicants for the disposal of biowaste containers, and their number is literally increasing for us every minute, ”says the municipality’s spokesman.
According to him, the public’s reactions to the change cannot be unambiguously classified as either significantly negative or significantly positive. “We have received responses from clients who are dissatisfied with the increase in the fee rate in the case of larger containers, as well as responses from clients who are clearly satisfied, who perceive the fee setting as an incentive for waste sorting,” adds Hofman.