Waste treatment capacity indicator: assessing recovery capacities for plastic waste in the Czech Republic

Waste treatment capacity indicator: assessing recovery capacities for plastic waste in the Czech Republic

Článek WoS

The transition from a traditional linear model to a circular economy in waste management requires targeted support to establish an adequate treatment network. A fully sustainable supply chain must be designed for long-term viability, which is closely linked to selecting appropriate waste treatment technologies, ensuring a sufficiently dense network, and minimizing transportation distances. The capacity of individual facilities is often unavailable, as it is typically reported in aggregated form, making it unsuitable for evaluating specific waste streams. The article proposes a general methodology for assessing the adequacy of capacity networks and identifying regions with the potential for improving the utilization of new capacities. The outcome is a general indicator calculating transport distances to selected waste management methods. This indicator is directly tied to records from waste management monitoring, correlating waste generation, and treatment on a regional level. The proposed indicator is used in a comprehensive analysis of plastic waste as one of the most problematic fractions of sortable waste from the perspective of recycling. The current production and treatment are analyzed in detail from both the economic activities of entities and the geographical perspective including a complex Sankey diagram. The results show that only 47% of the waste is recovered materially or energetically within the Czech Republic, and there is a lack of treatment capacity for both primary plastic and secondary plastic after sorting especially in the western regions of the Czech Republic.

The transition from a traditional linear model to a circular economy in waste management requires targeted support to establish an adequate treatment network. A fully sustainable supply chain must be designed for long-term viability, which is closely linked to selecting appropriate waste treatment technologies, ensuring a sufficiently dense network, and minimizing transportation distances. The capacity of individual facilities is often unavailable, as it is typically reported in aggregated form, making it unsuitable for evaluating specific waste streams. The article proposes a general methodology for assessing the adequacy of capacity networks and identifying regions with the potential for improving the utilization of new capacities. The outcome is a general indicator calculating transport distances to selected waste management methods. This indicator is directly tied to records from waste management monitoring, correlating waste generation, and treatment on a regional level. The proposed indicator is used in a comprehensive analysis of plastic waste as one of the most problematic fractions of sortable waste from the perspective of recycling. The current production and treatment are analyzed in detail from both the economic activities of entities and the geographical perspective including a complex Sankey diagram. The results show that only 47% of the waste is recovered materially or energetically within the Czech Republic, and there is a lack of treatment capacity for both primary plastic and secondary plastic after sorting especially in the western regions of the Czech Republic.

Circular economy; Plastic waste monitoring; Waste recovery capacities; Transport distance analysis; Regional assessment

Circular economy; Plastic waste monitoring; Waste recovery capacities; Transport distance analysis; Regional assessment

PLUSKAL, J.; JIA, X.; KUBOWSKÝ, J.; ŠOMPLÁK, R.

04.06.2026

Springer

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy

28

6

Spojené státy americké

168

18

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10098-026-03509-5