The Capital City of Prague as a producer of municipal waste produced 210.5 thousand tonne of mixed waste in 1998. This amount was in 1999 reduced to 208.6 thousand tonne (annual increase – 0.85 %). In 2000 the amount of mixed waste grew to 209.9 thousand tonne (annual increase 0.57 %) and in 2001 it was produced 211.8 thousand tonne mixed waste (annual increase 0.95 %) on the City territory. Since 2002 the waste incineration is considered to be energy use of waste pursuant to the Act on Waste (it is not considered to be the final waste disposal). The annual increase „thanks to“ the introduction of the flat rate charge for waste was raised to 6.99 %, there were 226.7 thousand tonnes of mixed waste produced. In 2003 the charge for waste disposal based on the collecting container size was reintroduced and the waste production on the City territory was 230.2 thousand tonne of mixed waste (annual increase was 1.54 %), in 2004 the mixed waste production reached 231.0 thousand tonne (annual increase accounted for 0.35 %).
| year | municipal waste (kt) | disposed waste (kt) | reuse (kt) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| landfilling | total | energy generation | material reuse | |||
| - sorted * | Fe - from cinder | |||||
| 1998 | 231,6 | 94,5 | 138,0 | 129,1 | 8,0 | 2,0 |
| 1999 | 240,9 | 31,3 | 209,6 | 193,6 | 16,0 | 3,1 |
| 2000 | 251,1 | 59,2 | 191,9 | 166,9 | 25,0 | 2,9 |
| 2001 | 257,2 | 31,9 | 225,3 | 196,3 | 29,0 | 2,9 |
| 2002 ** | 281,8 | 42,5 | 239,3 | 202,0 | 37,3 | 3,3 |
| 2003 | 292,9 | 43,4 | 249,5 | 205,4 | 44,1 | 3,6 |
| 2004 | 305,0 | 42,4 | 262,6 | 208,1 | 54,5 | 2,8 |
| 2005 | 319,1 | 54,0 | 265,1 | 201,2 | 63,9 | 3,4 |
* including hazardous waste
** The amount of flood-induced waste is not included
The increasing effectiveness of the sorted collection of municipal waste can be seen in table here below. The graphic demonstration of the amount of sorted waste on the territory of the City of Prague clearly documents the ever increasing amount of the sorted waste. If the material reuse and energy use of waste in the incineration plant can be considered a waste use then results of the sorting are even more pronounced (this reflects the wording of the new Act on Waste, which has been effective since 1 January 2002):
| year | sorting effectiveness – only material reuse (weight %) | the proportion of the waste use for the material reuse and energy generation (weight %) | proportion of waste disposed by landfilling, including cinder and ash (weight %) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 * | 0,5 | 0,5 | 99,5 |
| 1998 | 4,3 | 43 | 57 |
| 1999 | 7,8 | 63 | 37 |
| 2000 | 11,0 | 57 | 43 |
| 2001 | 12,3 | 77 | 23 |
| 2002 | 14,3 | 73 | 27 |
| 2003 | 16,3 | 84 | 16 |
| 2004 | 18,6 | 86 | 14 |
| 2005 | 21,1 | 83 | 17 |
* before the project implementation
The energy use shall mean the use of waste the way similar to fuel for the purpose of obtaining of its energy content, or in some other way for energy production. In this way of use the conditions shall be complied with that the waste used does not require any other supporting fuel for burning after being ignited and the heat generated must be used for the own consumption of the generating person or for other persons. In the case of the mixed waste incineration in the Municipal Waste Incineration Plant Malešice these conditions are met.
Since 2002 cinder and ash from the process of energy incineration of municipal waste have been partly used as material and partly landfilled. For this reason statistics cannot exactly determine the percentage of the municipal waste reuse. The energy use of mixed waste is governed by season. Prague Heat Utility Co. makes the price for steam supply advantageous in the heating season.