Ecological disposal of packaging waste

EKO-KOM system

EKO-KOM a.s. is an authorized packaging company, that is assuring the obligation of retaking and use of the waste from packaging (based on law no.477/2001 Sb. - file to download, 399kB, doc). The procedure is done based on authorization decision (file to download ; 114kB, jpg), which was given by the Ministry of Environment on 28th of March 2002 and came to power on 30th of March 2002. It was done also based on a decision about renewal of authorization (file to download; 118 kB, pdf) given 29th of March 2005, that came to power on 21st of April 2005. By law, parties who put packaging or packaged products on the market or into circulation, ie. imported, transported across the borders of the European Union, fill or sell, have a duty of retaking and recovery of packaging waste. These parties can contract the agreement about associate fulfillment of obligations with EKO-KOM, a.s. EKO-KOM system assures combined fulfillment of the duties of retaking and recovery of the waste from packaging through the system of sorting the waste in the municipalities and through the parties authorized to dispose of the waste. EKO-KOM a.s. is not directly working with the packaging waste, but it is financially supporting expenses related to waste collection, delivery, waste sorting and reuse of packaging waste.
The EKO-KOM system is based on 2 law obligations:
Importing, filling and distributing companies and retails that are bringing onto the market or into circulation the packaging or packaged products, have the obligation of retaking and recovering packaging waste.
Based on the waste law, villages and cities have to sort the waste and use garbage points, which have to have a section for packaging.
On one side, EKO-KOM makes agreements with producers that are putting the packaging or packaged products on the market. Based on this contractual relations, EKO-KOM is collecting data about production of packaging and charging fees that are based on the amount of produced packaging.
On the other side EKO-KOM a.s. makes agreements about retaking and recycling of packaging with villages and parties responsible for waste management. These parties have a duty to have records about the amount of returned and recovered packaging waste. Based on the recorded data EKO-KOM a.s. is financially supporting the collection, sorting and reuse of packaging waste.

The system is based on similar models, that are used in other EU countries, where this kind of system is part of the waste management. Except retaking and recovery of packaging waste, EKO-KOM is also providing information, consultations and support for research and education.