Ostrava launches “single-stream”, a unique waste management project

A new way of sorting waste will be tested by residents of the Ostrava City District of Radvanice a Bartovice. OZO, the waste management company, will place special waste bins to the family houses in Bartovice and a small part of Radvanice. So far, larger garbage containers have been placed in several places and people had to go to them.

“For this project, unique in the Czech Republic, we deliberately chose a City District that is constantly confronted with a deteriorated environment, namely air pollution, and where the city helps, for example, with the revitalization of green areas and the creation of new parks”, explained Kateřina Šebestová, Deputy Mayor for the Environment. The placement of containers for usable waste components directly to family houses is one of the few options to improve the elaborate collection system for sorted waste in Ostrava. “If this unique method of separation proves successful, we will continue its implementation in other Ostrava City Districts”, added Kateřina Šebestová.

Waste deposited in the blue-yellow containers will be further precisely sorted on a sorting line and utilized as material (about 25%) or as energy by producing solid alternative fuel for cement plants (about 75%).

“This new way of separating waste does not mean we’re going to abandon its sorting. Quite the opposite. Our goal is to increase the amount of separated waste and the comfort of sorting for citizens. The blue and yellow containers, where the citizens originally separated plastics and paper, will be removed from Bartovice. At the same time, with the introduction of new sorting vessels, the frequency of collection of mixed municipal waste will be reduced during the pilot project”, said OZO Managing Director Karel Belda, adding that in the remaining parts of Ostrava things will remain unchanged. “We keep the established way of sorting, the new method now only concerns family houses in the selected part of Bartovice. Even if the project extends to other Ostrava City Districts, it will focus only on family houses, where the majority of people have to walk a long way to sorting containers. In Ostrava’s housing estates, waste separation bins are already located virtually outside house”, confirmed Karel Belda.