space Press Releases, News Stories

by Lyle Frink, Prague Business Journal

Deputy Jiri Drda (ODS, Liberec) submitted a proposal that would open a loophole to incinerator operators, allowing them to circumvent an Environment Ministry ban on the import of non-recyclable waste. It would expand classification criteria for incineration to include waste "for gaining energy," rather than "for recycling waste" as the amendment was originally drawn up. If passed, the changes would come into effect on January 1, 2000.

The wording could provide a boost to the new Termizo waste incineration plant in Liberec, where MP Drda sits as board chairman, and offer a cheap source of heating to nearby heating plant Teplarna Liberec, on whose board Drda also sits. U.S.-based Horizon owns Teplarna Liberec.

"Drda wants to save the Termizo company," said Jindrich Petrlik, chairman of environmental group Deti Zeme (Children of the Earth), which opposes the amendment. "He pushed the local authorities for guaranteeing the loan for building the incinerator. The city of Liberec very much depends on the profits from the incinerator."

He added that Drda had used his position as mayor of Liberec to finance and push through the project. Drda, who is no longer mayor of Liberec, did not respond to inquiries from the PBJ for this article. The Termizo incinerator is owned by a group of 16 local communities, and the city of Liberec holds a 76% stake. Termizo borrowed Kc 1.5 billion with a city guarantee to build the facility.

Deti Zeme has sent a letter to Parliament to protest what it sees as a conflict of interest on the part of Drda. "Unfortunately, this is really a normal thing nowadays," said one MP in Parliament. "However, his connection [to Termizo] is common knowledge. It is better than a paid lobbiest, where you do not know where they stand."

Two other major urban incinerators, in Prague and Brno, are expected to be increasingly important primary methods for these cities to liquidate their household refuse. And, according to the amendment's sponsor, the Christian Democratic Union's Libor Ambrozek, all three are losing money.

The amendment, originally supported by a bipartisan group including the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the Freedom Union (US), the Christian Democrats and the Czech Association of Cities and Communities, was introduced as a measure to improve municipalities' ability to collect garbage collection fees (see PBJ, June 14, 1999). According to Petrlik, Drda pushed hard for the incinerator waste classifications to be included in the amendment during committee debate. Drda has a long history of involvement in refuse issues. While major of Liberec, he founded an association of local municipalities in 1991 that focused on waste issues. With this core group, he helped establish Termizo in 1996.

Drda's minor change has split support for the bill and upset environmental groups. "The Czech Association of Cities and Communities wanted only paragraphs nine and 10 [on refuse collection fees]," said Antonin Kment, mayor of Msnin in South Moravia and the chairman of the association's environmental committee. His group is concerned that a measure to improve municipal revenue collection may have become a Trojan horse for special interests in the incineration business.

Debate on the bill is expected to resume this week. The bill has already passed through its first reading and was in the middle of its second two weeks ago when debate was postponed. "We have to debate it very soon," said Ambrozek. "But it [the Drda amendment] could be an influence on whether or not this amendment is accepted."

Though household waste incineration is far below levels in European Union countries, Ambrozek said he thought that Drda's last-minute change might lead to the amendment's defeat. Current law forbids the import of all but recyclable waste, such as plastic bottles, for incineration and landfills, according to Libos Skoda from the waste department of the Ministry of Environment.

"If this is not applicable or respected, it [burnable waste] could be imported." said Skoda. Minutes before Drda proposed the changes, the Environment Minister Milos Kuzvart spoke out against the bill, requesting that MPs wait for a comprehensive rewriting of the waste law, which he said would be submitted by next summer. Other sources say this estimate is overly optimistic, with 2002 more likely.

Environmental groups are again mobilizing against the legislation. "What we are against is this combination in the law between 'used' garbage and imports," said Petrlik. At stake is the air quality around the country, not just around the three municipal incinerators of Brno, Liberec, and Prague, according to Petrlik "If you have permission to import for re-use, then you call the burning of waste re-use."

The incinerators would utilize the waste to generate heat and electricity, as opposed to burying it in a landfill. "It is not only in incinerators, it is also permitted in some heating companies. Any heating plant close to the border could import waste for burning," he said. While Petrlik admitted that incineration was accepted in EU countries as a means of waste recovery, he said that the import of waste was generally discouraged or banned completely.

Other environmental groups are more concerned about enforcement of any new regime. "The doubts are in how this system of treating waste-derived fuel can be treated here," said Ondrej Velek, chairman of the Czech Society for the Environment. "This is opening the door for something which is quite reasonable, but there is a question as to how it will be controlled and monitored."

Much of the problem in lowering the barriers to waste import is at the border, according to Velek. "There were many examples of cheating in this area, cases of imported materials that were improperly labeled and so-called raw materials that were actually dangerous waste."

Velek also said that problems could arise due to time constraints in implementing sufficient controls to regulate the import of waste. "The actual experience with the import of waste is gloomy&. We should not create a surplus of [capacity] just to close the loops between our incinerators and waste. We have to stimulate circles inside the country and not open the doors too much."

Ambrozek defends the spirit of the amendment, saying it does not aim to open the floodgates to unlimited imports of garbage "It is not a free [unregulated] import; the Ministry of the Environment must approve imports."