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Description
In the Czech Republic, there has long been pressure from the industrial lobby to build waste incinerators. The reason is the chaos in waste management planning and the slow implementation of related strategies. As a result, there capacities for sustainable waste management don''t grow and the planned landfill ban was postponed recently from 2024 to 2030. Investing in waste incinerators is at odds with the EU''s circular economy and environmentally sustainable economic activities policies. Moreover, the waste incinerator projects under consideration put cities and regions at a disadvantage in many cases by committing them to financing the waste incinerators for unreasonably long periods. Civil society involvement in the assessment processes such as EIA is critical for increasing the transparency of decision making and preventing unreasonable flooding of the country by environmentally unsustainable facilities. We will work with at least 5 local initiatives facing such projects and help them to increase their ability to effectively use their civil rights, participate in decision making processes and improve their advocacy and media skills. We will also work with them on collecting and using new data useful for the policy dialogue. The methods to be used include: process mentoring, educational activities, data collection and research, media work, development of an activist guidance document etc.
Summary of project results
The so-called landfill ban is due to come into force in the Czech Republic in 2030. With 2030 approaching, public institutions are under strong pressure, which in many cases results in non-conceptual promotion of the construction of waste incinerators, or waste-to-energy plants (WTE), and other similar facilities (chemical recycling plants, cement plants, etc.). However, their excessive construction is contrary to the EU''s circular economy policy. The EU has already removed WTE from the list of sustainable economic activities in 2020. The European Parliament has also stopped funding incinerators from the Cohesion Fund. Increased pressure to build incinerators also results in the practice of non-transparent assessment and decision-making processes at the level of municipalities, regional authorities and ministries, and limiting public participation. In addition, the new Czech waste legislation of 2021 and the gradual process of its implementation has introduced a number of ambiguities into the issue of waste management that are detrimental to transparency. For local civic associations, informal initiatives and local people in general, these issues are often a major obstacle to effective participation in decision-making. Unless waste management solutions are transparent at all levels, the Czech Republic (or regions or municipalities) risk incurring long-standing, non-conceptual liabilities associated with the operation of overcapacity waste incinerators, which may contradict the circular economy and block waste prevention or recycling.
The aim of the project was to increase the transparency of the decision-making processes for the construction of waste incinerations, waste to energy plants, chemical recycling plants etc. in at least five locations in the Czech Republic with the help of specific activities targeting especially local civic associations. Our other long-term goal, to which the project was intended to contribute, is to change the general public''s view of waste incineration (WTE, chemical recycling etc.) and raise awareness of its negatives. For this purpose, we wanted to launch an awareness raising campaign on social networks and in the media. We were able to achieve both objectives. The project contributed to a substantial strengthening of local civic associations - twelve of them received technical and process mentoring for a total of 263.5 hours. In collaboration with them, we also made fifty-five submissions on twenty-six local policies, as well as thirteen submissions on four national policies. Some associations even made additional submissions on their own, especially those that we have been working with for a long time. We have published a very comprehensive and detailed expert study on waste incineration (WTE, chemical recycling etc.) and its environmental impacts, which the associations will be able to continue to use. It is also being translated into English so that we can share it with foreign organisations. We have had a total of one hundred and nineteen media appearances during the media campaign. We posted a total of one hundred and twenty-seven posts on social media. Our three videos had a total reach of over thirty-five thousand people. Finally, the project also strengthened the capacity and transfer of knowledge and skills within our own organisation.
The main target group of the project were local civic associations and informal initiatives. It was also focused on local governments, regional authorities and state institutions.
As described above, the project contributed to a substantial strengthening of local civic associations - twelve of them received technical and process mentoring for a total of 263.5 hours. In collaboration with them, we also made fifty-five submissions on twenty-six local policies, as well as thirteen submissions on four national policies. Some associations even made additional submissions on their own, especially those that we have been working with for a long time. We have published a very comprehensive and detailed expert study on waste incineration (WTE, chemical recycling etc.) and its environmental impacts, which the associations will be able to continue to use. It is also being translated into English so that we can share it with foreign organisations. The results of the evaluation questionnaire showed a high level of usefulness of these and other project activities aimed at local civil society (e.g. bringing local initiatives together in a coalition, ensuring communication between them, creating expert materials and argumentation tools for initiatives, etc.).
A total of fifty-five submissions on twenty-six local policies and thirteen submissions on four national policies (received by the Ministry of the Environment and the Committee on Environment of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic) were sent to representatives of local governments, regional authorities and state institutions. We attended a total of seven public meetings / hearings, whose participants included representatives of these bodies in addition to the public and civil society. We also attended three meetings directly with representatives of the Ministry of the Environment.
The project also included an awareness-raising campaign on social networks and in the media.