Waste recycling

Waste recycling and waste management

"The waste management system in Slovakia has not been set up correctly for a long time and requires changes. One of the priorities must be that waste processors have the motivation to look for ways to recycle not only the sorted components, but also the mixed municipal waste itself".

Robert Procházka, executive director of the technological and production company VÚMZ SK, which operates on the Slovak recycling market and deals with the production and development of technologies, primarily for waste management, stated this for Odpady-portal.sk.

Motivations are important

According to R. Procházek, recycling companies must be systemically and financially motivated to process all municipal waste, both mixed and pre-separated components, more and more efficiently.

According to him, the waste management system should be set up in such a way that all recoverable materials can be extracted from the waste, which can be further used in Slovakia or abroad with the aim of significantly reducing or stop it from being landfilled.

"It is a logical procedure and also a legislative effort of the EU to motivate mainly process recycling and recovery and to set up the system itself in EU countries in this way. We can also see this on a practical level using the examples of our neighbors," says R. Procházka.

"What the market is no longer able to remove from the waste and further process, i.e. valorize, it is correct to continue energy recovery, i.e. to burn and produce energy from the waste, ideally in a combined way. However, the key is to succeed in achieving the desired conversion efficiency and not just "burn for the sake of burning," the expert thinks.

According to him, investments in waste management were distorted in the past by co-financing, which was not based on real economic parameters or on "green" criteria, but on completely different principles.

"The number of recycling lines in the world is not decreasing, on the contrary, it is increasing. Almost on a weekly basis, we solve inquiries in the field of sorting and recycling lines, and not only from Slovakia. We manufacture optical equipment, sieves, conveyors, crushers and other equipment for the waste industry ourselves, so we see an ever-growing demand in this segment," says the head of VÚMZ SK.

Waste recycling must be a priority

According to R. Procházko, the primary goal of waste management should be to make use of everything that still has economic value from the produced waste. He considers energy recovery of waste to be a rational choice only after this condition is met.

"This is how the current EU legislation is set up and this is how it needs to be incorporated into the local legislation of its individual states. In the case of combustion, we should also talk about a truly efficient waste to energy system, where the efficiency of burning and obtaining other forms of energy from the process reaches at least 70%. As far as I know, we do not have such facilities in Slovakia yet," emphasizes the director of VÚMZ SK.

According to him, the development of energy recovery of waste is also hampered by the high investment requirement, which is associated with strict requirements for environmental protection, as well as permitting processes, including the "big EIA."

"Let's stay on the ground and try to set up the system in such a way that we motivate processors to look for the most cost-effective options for the recovery of one ton of waste. This way we will get the right combination of different solutions and we will be able to gradually close the circular economy system," continues R. Procházka.

The Slovak customer is specific

According to R. Procházko, the current crisis associated with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has had a relatively mild impact on the Slovak recycling technology market.

"Given the broader portfolio of products and services, including the setting of directions in the industry, the corona crisis did not harm us to the extent that it did for narrowly profiled companies, for example, doing business in the automotive industry," R. Procházka responded to our question.

According to R. Procházko, the customers of VÚMZ SK are currently most interested in those technologies that save customers operating costs, increase production capacity or product output quality.

"They primarily include transport or sorting systems, in Slovakia primarily optical, magnetic, non-magnetic, vibrating, centrifugal or simple manual separation lines, abroad also laser, as well as various handling systems," said R. Procházka.

"The Slovak customer is specific, perhaps in that, in addition to the technological solution itself, he is interested in seeing the economics of his project," he pointed out, adding that such a solution requires the customer to make available to the contractor his inputs and outputs with which he will work.