High expectations for incineration plants as new landfills fill up

KLAIPEDA - With Lithuania’s EU membership, the country has committed itself to meeting its waste management and environment protection requirements, but the policy-making may be the toughest when it comes to the ordinary people’s mindset. Only 15 percent of Lithuanians meticulously sort out secondary raw material and properly use the three-color containers, designed for a certain kind of waste. Who is to blame for others’ irresponsibility? Explaining this, a lack of information and a little ecological education should be taken in to account, but the core of the problems reaches the last twenty years of Lithuanian history. In the Soviet era, speaking visually, every apartment block had its own dumpsite. It was often in the back yard, or at a nearest soccer field. These kinds of “landfills” were illegal, however, no one cared for waste management and no one persecuted abundant polluters.

The Soviet era is gone, but its life-forming habits are so tenacious that it might take many years to alter the new generation’s environmental perceptions. Despite the Soviet relics in the Lithuanian mentality, with the country’s EU membership, strict requirements have been put on the national waste policies, and funds have been allocated for waste management, as the country is subjected to play according to the EU rules.

As a part of EU policy, more than 800 existing landfills and dumpsites (only 35 of them were larger than 5 hectares; as a rule, all of them were unequipped and poorly designed) were gradually closed and regional waste management centers (RWMC) were set up. They include new, European-style landfills and their administrative units. Five hundred million litas (142 million euros), including EU financing from the cohesion fund, the national budget and a  loan to the company established by the municipalities, have been allocated for the implementation and management of the centers. However, their establishment was rather complicated, as some municipalities quarreled with each other over their financial contributions for this kind of venture, and downplayed their role through the process.

Lithuania is currently developing 10 regional waste management centers, as the investment projects to create waste management systems in the regions of Alytus, Siauliai, Taurage, Klaipeda, Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevezys, Marijampole, Telsiai and Utena are at the stage of final implementation or, in some regions, are already finished.

As a part of the far reaching project, waste management companies were established in the municipalities and are supposed to take care of their communal waste. To start operating, the companies first had to win the public tender and sign an agreement with the municipality. They must provide the municipality with data on waste collected, managed and disposed every year. Business entities can either sign a garbage collection agreement with the waste management companies or carry waste to the landfills on their own. So far, the process has not gone very smoothly, as some entrepreneurs try to avoid signing such agreements, arguing they do not produce any waste. It is still quite a common practice in the country when burden-laden businesspeople simply dump their garbage in the old, already closed landfills and dumpsites. On the other hand, many complain that there are not enough specialists to control the waste management companies, and many criticize their work for low quality.

Closing of the scattered throughout the country Soviet-style dumpsites, and the opening of new landfills, did not go as smoothly as many had wished. Notwithstanding that the old landfills were messy, poorly equipped and managed, due to their proximity to the cities and towns, access to them was extremely convenient. With the ten new landfills, it may now take rural waste management companies up to two or more hours to reach them, thus, significantly adding to the costs. The old landfills were state-run and, therefore, of low cost, which meant dumping garbage cost everyone mere change. With the set-up of the regional waste management centers, one has learnt that garbage dumping can be very expensive.

As the RWMC expands their functions, which now mostly include waste collection and storage, it is likely that waste landfill fees will soon go up. That is something that worries many business owners and residents, as until recently, apartment and home owners have been charged just a symbolic fee for the communal waste collection and disposal. However, with the RWMC establishment, garbage management for residents has become a heavy burden, as a general waste management fee was, or, as in a few counties, is being imposed.

There was an ardent discussion countrywide whether the fee should be calculated according to the total area of the apartment or house or to the number of tenants living in the space. Since declaration of one’s home address in the Lithuanian passport is not mandatory, as it used to be during the Soviet era, there are many unaccounted residents, dubbed “free souls.” Therefore, in imposing the fee, municipalities considered this fact and most set the fee to the actual area of the residence, infuriating many citizens, as the principle “the larger living space, the more garbage is produced” seems to be unfair to the majority.

“I am an old man of 74, a retiree with a pension a bit over 700 litas. I live alone in my own house. I look after an empty house of my deceased brother, as well as take care of my emigrant son’s vacant three-room apartment. I produce just very little garbage through the year and none in winter. It drives me mad that every quarter I am obliged to pay the mandatory garbage fee of more than 150 litas, including for the empty residences. It is just dishonest and I see it as the state’s blessed rip-off,” says pensioner Bronius Jurgilas, resident of the southern town of Alytus, speaking with The Baltic Times. Alytus County introduced the waste management general fee from last year.

Taurage County is going to impose the fee from July 1. The county’s RWMC, in Leikiskes, has been operating for over one year. It takes up 9.9 hectares and has waste storage, waste sorting and biodegradable waste compost sections. Twenty two million litas has been budgeted for the facility. The so-called “gates fee” for businesses was established, which is 77.5 litas per ton. Many entrepreneurs complain that it is too high, especially, when extra transport costs to get to the landfill must be considered. It is expected that it will store nearly 30,000 tons of communal waste here.

However, its shareholder, Silale Municipality, is not very optimistic about the facility and pending fee, as its Mayor Albinas Ezerskis spoke out against it: “The fee is a very sensitive matter. It additionally burdens our residents with taxation. Our county is one of the last ones to introduce it, so I can see how it works elsewhere. From what I observe, I am not happy. It seems to me that the fee is too high. However, our municipality has no choice, [we can] only put the garbage burden on the shoulders of our residents.

We still have not decided whether we will calculate it to the actual number of residents in a residence, or to the actual area. The residents’ agreement signing process with our municipality over garbage collection and disposal have not gone as bad as in other municipalities. The State Strategic Waste Management plan projected that 95 percent of the population should have had such agreements by 2010, but only 80 – 90 percent have already signed them. In our municipality, this averages 85 percent. Many people, particularly in the countryside, are still unwilling to sign the agreements. With twenty years of independence, there is still a rather big deal by residents who would prefer to manage garbage in the way that it used to be during the Soviet period, simply dumping it on the outskirts [of town]. There is still much to do in educating our population and promoting ecological consciousness.”

The mayor expressed his disappointment on the waste management center, because it “constantly increases operational fees, but its efficiency is in doubt. As far as I know, the waste is not being sorted in the Leikiskes landfill yet, as there is no necessary equipment. They just keep storing the waste, but they should be recycling and recovering it by now. If the situation continues, we may not ensure that by 2013, as the EU requires, the amount of municipal waste being disposed will not exceed 50 percent of all municipal waste produced.”

The national waste management system’s problems derive from the decisions taken back in 2002, when the project was allocated a budget in advance, excluding the possibility to review or supplement it due to ever increasing costs. “Because of this, from the beginning, we were constantly being driven into a corner. The project’s budget has been exhausted, as only half of the planned work has been done. That is why we do not yet have biodegradable waste sites. They have been built just in the regional landfills. That explains why we do not have enough machinery to process the waste in the landfills. Right now, we do not have enough money even to open a secondary raw material sorting line in Leikiskes landfill. Therefore, we are about to announce a tender for this kind of service, as only private investors can help out us in this situation,” said Leonas Leikus, Director of Taurage RWMC.

Many experts agree that Lithuania has not advanced very far in waste management since having committed to the EU’s requirements. With the regional waste management centers running, they encompass just the initial step of waste management – storage. This is something that concerns Lithuanian politicians and environmentalists.

“When will we stop just disposing the garbage? Lithuania has not made any progress implementing the waste management programs. The blame falls as well on politicians who cannot control the waste management system and its monetary inflows. Obviously, we will not be able to ensure that, by 2013, municipality-disposed waste does not exceed 50 percent of all municipal waste, which means Lithuania will receive less EU funding or, at worst, will be cut off completely. Sadly, we have not properly faced the fact that our population shows such severe resistance to proposals when it comes to building technologically advanced waste recycling and recovery facilities. For that reason, building a waste incineration facility in Vilnius County is still pending,” said Jonas Simenas, Head of Lithuanian Parliament’s Environment Protection Committee, at a recent environmental conference.

“The National waste management system works ineffectively. Only the initial secondary raw material sorting works satisfactorily, however, the secondary waste sorting systems, as well as hazardous waste collection, waste recycling and recovery systems have not been created yet. Therefore, our new landfills will be over capacity soon. Waste incineration plants may help to solve the problem, however, only the prospect of this kind of plant in Klaipeda looks hopeful. The Ministry of Energy is planning to build 5 waste incineration plants, however, it remains unclear when it will happen,” reported Jonas Pinskus, parliamentarian and a member of the parliament’s Environment Protection Committee.

While the waste incineration issue drags on, Klaipeda is ready to start building a facility next year. Many see it as a possible breakthrough in waste management. With the plant operating, not only will waste be effectively recovered, but also, and what is of the major importance, this would also supply heating, thus, decreasing its costs.