Czech Republic

The cleanest thing in the Czech waste business is the waste

The Czech Republic stands alongside Spain and Austria in demonstrating the outsized influence of a producer responsibility organisation on waste management and their role in lobbying against progressive legislation.

The battle to establish a deposit return system has followed these countries too. On one side, NGOs, campaigners and public opinion weigh heavily in favour of such mandatory approaches to tackling plastic pollution. On the other, spearheaded by PRO, EKO-KOM, the industry continues to go to great lengths to maintain their monopoly over lucrative recycling streams in the Czech Republic, funding studies and manipulating data to protect their business interests.