Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic: Detailed Overview of Plastic Waste Movement through IoT Data

Monitoring Plastic Bottle Movement with IoT Tracking Chips

How many plastic bottles actually enter the recycling process? The Ministry of the Environment wanted to find out what happens to plastic bottles after they are thrown into sorted bins for plastic waste.

In collaboration with Adastra, a project was initiated using IoT technology to track the movement of sorted bottles, providing real data to improve the entire recycling process.

Adastra equipped 100 empty plastic bottles with advanced tracking chips and monitored their movement for 3 months. The connected IoT platform enabled real-time tracking of the bottles’ position and condition, providing a visual overview of their movement.

IoT Data Reveals the Reality of Plastic Waste Recycling Process

The research provided insights into the current state of recycling in the Czech Republic. According to information from the ministry, only three-quarters of plastic bottles entering the Czech market end up in sorted waste. But what is the reality?

Without the real data provided by the IoT solution, the Ministry of the Environment wouldn’t have discovered that:

• Only 58.9% of bottles enter the recycling process. (19.3% of plastic bottles go to recycling centers, and 39.6% are sent to sorting facilities or collection yards)
• Contrary to the law, 11.8% of plastic bottles end up in landfills.
• Almost one-tenth of plastic bottles are exported abroad, specifically to Slovakia and France.

The goal for the future is to sort all bottles.