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Total area of the Czech Republic (CR) is c. 79 thousand km2. Czech population is 10.3 million inhabitants. Total agricultural area is c. 4.3 million hectares including c. 3.1 million hectares of arable soils. Total area of forests is 2.6 million hectares.
In the Czech Republic 31,2 million tonnes of different wastes are generated annually. Dangerous waste is 5,9 % of the total waste. The biggest amount of waste is generated by industry (6,1 million t. annually), energy production (1,8 million t.) and agriculture (1,1 million t.). Biological degradable part of industry and energy waste is c. 11 % or 913,000 tonnes. Biological degradable part of agricultural waste is c. 82 % or 903,000 tonnes. Annual agricultural production of solid organic manure is 10,3, urine 4 and slurry 6,3 million tonnes. These organic manures (in total 20,6 million tonnes) are not included into the agricultural waste.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is 4.4 million tonnes annually or near 14 % of the total waste. Biological degradable part of MSW is c. 50% or 2.2 million tonnes. Separate collection of plastic materials, glasses and papers is carried out currently by prop of points or door-to-door method. Waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Czech republic produce near 467 000 t wet sewage sludge. Today 212,000 tonnes of sewage sludge is direct applied into agricultural soil, 26,000 is composted and 27,0000 thousand is landfillled.
The whole potential of biological degradable organic raw material in CR amounts up to 4,5 million tonnes (913,000 tonnes industrial biowaste + 903,000 tonnes agricultural biowaste + 2.2 million tonnes biodegradable MSW + 467,000 tonnes of sewage sludge).

The majority of municipal waste disposal in the Czech Republic is still largely dependent upon landfilling. Today 73% of total MSW are landfilled, mainly without any pre-treatment, and 8,5 % of MSW are incinerated as mixed municipal waste, while source separation and recycling averaged 18 % of national MSW production. It means that more than 3 million tonnes of municipal biowaste are landfilled annually, 790,000 tonnes of municipal biowaste are recycled and 370,000 tonnes are incinerated as mixed communal waste. Although the new legislation doesn't allow to landfill waste without a pre-treatment, the common understanding of sufficient pretreatment is source separation of plastic, paper etc. so the MWS as such is disposed on landfills without any real treatment.

2. Treatment of organic waste

Composting
Capacity for composting is around 700,000 tonnes annualy in the Czech republic. Nowadays 300,000  tonnes of compost is being produced for sale annualy and 200,000 tonnes of compost  is being produced for self need. The material being composted is mostly biodegradable municipal waste and sewage sludge, and also 100-200,000 tonnes of industrial biowaste and 300 to 500,000 tonnes of agriculturale biowaste (manures, animal waste etc.)

Today there are c. 80 compost plants in CR, 64 of them are small with capacity of < 5000 t/year, and 16 are large with capacity of > 5000 t/year). According to the new Czech action environmental plan, the capacity of compost plant shall achieve up to 1.12 million tonnes.

Anaerobic digestion
In the Czech Republic there are more than 60  biogas plants, which use the agricultural waste and agriculture raw materials. There are 8 biogas plants for source separated biowaste treatment. 

Biological-Mechanical-Pre-treatment
The first MBT plant with the treatment capacity 70,000 tonnes/year is now in the commissioning in the north of the Czech Republic. It produces compost like output to be landfilled and calorific fraction to be used as a substitued fuel in cement kilns.
 

3 Legal framework for the organic waste stream and the compost production

In the Czech Republic there is the act on waste No 185/2001 Coll. including the supporting ordinances, the act has been in force since 1.1.2002. This framework agree with all valid directives of the European Union concerning the waste management.
According to the landfill directive 99/31/EC Czech republic has set up the goal in the waste management plan to decrease the amount of biodegradablee waste being landfilled. The goal is to decrease the maximum amount of biologically degradable municipal wastes (hereinafter (BDMW) deposited in landfills, so that the fraction of these components equals a maximum of 75% wt. in 2010 and 50% wt. in 2013 and, in the future, in 2020, a maximum of 35% wt. of the total amount of BDMW produced in 1995.

There is an ordinance on biowaste (341/2008 Coll.) in force since 26.8. 2008. This ordinance sets up the rules for the tratment of biodegradable waste. The statutory standards of compost sell and use in agriculture, gardening etc. is determine in fertilizer ordinance. Final compost according the fertilizers ordinance is limited by heavy metals concentration (see the following table). The final compost has to fullfill also following parametrs: water content between 40 - 65%, volatile solids min. 25% of dry matter, total nitrogen min 0.6% of dry matter, C/N ratio 30 at maximum, pH 6 - 8.5. Temperature 55°C has to last 21 days at minimum during the composting process.
Table 1. Limit concentration of selected hazardeus substances and elements (compost for recultivation use- group 2 and 3)

The fertilizer law 156/1998 Coll. as amended by the act 308/2000 Coll. and supporting directives states requirements on quality of all organic fertilizers including composts, which is distributed by sale for agricultural use (Outputs group I). It has to be considered whenever it comes to marketing of fertilisers. This standard includes criteria for labelling and some minimum features (above all agronomic features as concentration of nutrients, organic matter).
 Table 2: Requirement for heavy metals concentration for group 1, compost for agricultural use (mg /kg of dry matter)

5. Contacts and sources of information

The non-governmental organization named CZ Biom looks after the development of ecological waste management in the Czech Republic. CZ Biom includes the department of composting, which associates the compost manufacturers accord of one's own, and the department of biogas production, which joins together keepers of biogas plants. Next expert branches deal with energic use of biomass and biowaste. Dr. Jan Habart is a chairman of this organisation.
Research in the area of composting and anaerobic digestion in the Czech Republic is carried out mainly by department of ecotoxicology (a leadership - Dr. Jaroslav Vana - see above) and by experimental station in Chomutov (a head - Dr. Sergej Ustak), both organizations belong to the Research Institute of Crop Production (RICP) Prague.

NGO CZ BIOM and RICP closely cooperate.
Their address is:
U Ctyr Domu 120 1/3
140 00 Praha 4
the Czech Republic
web page: www.czbiom.cz
phone: + 420-241 730 326
e-mail: habart@biom.cz