EKO-KOM Inc.

EKO-KOM system

The authorized packaging company EKO-KOM was founded in 1997 by industrial companies producing packaged goods. This non-profit joint-stock company has created and effectively operates a nationwide system that ensures the sorting, recycling and utilization of packaging waste at a quality European level. For the whole complex of activities provided by the companies, the name 'EKO-KOM system' was adopted.

This system, based on the cooperation of industrial companies, cities and municipalities, ensures that waste from used packaging is sorted by the consumer, collected by collection technology, sorted and finally used as a secondary raw material or possibly as a source of energy.

EKO-KOM has long been achieving the state-required recycling rate in order to meet the obligations of take-back and use of packaging waste on behalf of its clients to the standards required by law. Despite the fact that we are one of the leading countries in the EU in terms of recycling results, we are among the most economical systems in terms of unit costs per tonne of recycled waste. This is clearly confirmed by the BIO Intelligence Service study commissioned by the European Commission, which compares, among other things, the costs of sorting and recycling packaging spent in EU countries with the high recycling rate achieved. Together with Czech cities and municipalities, our industry has created a system of sorting and recycling waste, which is one of the most efficient and at the same time the most efficient in Europe.

More about the activities of EKO ‑ KOM

As part of meeting the legal requirements for its clients, EKO-KOM ensures continuous sales of sorted raw material, which means maintaining sufficient quality of the output product, which is marketable on both the European and global markets.

To meet all the requirements of the law for its clients, EKO-KOM had to convince at least 65% of consumers to adopt the correct waste sorting habits. Maintaining a stable willingness of at least 65% of consumers to use the take-back service requires an effective mix of communication techniques including standard advertising tools as well as forms of long-term education. Consumer behavior must also be influenced in terms of the quality of sorting, because the level of waste pollution is directly related to the cost of the entire system and the stability of sales of raw materials.

The efficiency of the entire packaging recycling system is based mainly on cooperation with municipalities and cities in ensuring a sufficient number of available containers and their service. An integral link in the sorted waste management chain are the treatment operators of the collected waste and the final processors of the secondary raw material. Indeed, the recycling of sorted waste itself must also be encouraged in the case of some difficult-to-use waste materials.

The condition for sufficient participation of the population in waste sorting is an accessible collection network. It is practically verified that if the distance that a citizen has to walk to the nearest container exceeds 400 meters, then no more than 5% of the population will sort waste. For stable involvement of at least 65% of consumers in waste sorting, collection containers must be arranged so that the normal delivery distance does not exceed 150 meters. The current average distance to the nearest collection point is less than 90 meters, which means that the quality of the collection network required by consumers is already provided by us in most of the country. The collection network currently consists of more than 558,000 colored containers for the separate collection of paper, plastics, glass and beverage cartons and, to a lesser extent, metals. It is complemented by bag collection and other collection methods such as collection yards, collection centers and repurchases.