EU requires dumps clean-up

Just eight of Estonia's 48 garbage dumps will survive European Union accession, experts say, and limited reliance on recycling and waste sorting programs will have to develop quickly once Estonia joins the bloc.

Ragn-Sells, one of the country's largest waste disposal firms, estimates that Estonia produces about 11 million tons of waste a year, most of it byproducts from oil-shale processing that accumulate in the country's northeast.

But few of the country's dumping sites meet stringent EU standards on safe garbage storage and recycling.

Arg Remmelg, development director at Ragn Sells, said Estonians had yet to embrace the environmentally friendly approaches in the EU, where recycling is a major element of waste storage and disposal.

"Estonia has a different attitude toward trash. People here still drop bags of trash in the forest," he said.

The Environment Ministry estimates that Estonia would have to invest some 6.6 billion kroons (423 million euros) into the waste processing and disposal sector between now and 2010 to bring it up to EU standards.

About half of that amount would be needed to develop new technology to safely store oil-shale burning byproducts and closing existing byproduct dumps.

The remainder would go toward reconstruction of the other existing dumps and modernizing the Narva power stations that rely on oil-shale mining.

Today, only about 10 percent of all waste is recycled.

The 300 million kroon industry comprises some 20 significant companies and employs about 800 Estonians, many of whom will lose their jobs when EU requirements force the least environmentally-friendly dumps to close.

Prevention of unauthorized and inefficient waste storage is one of the major problems in Estonian waste management, according to the rescue department.

The problems that have plagued one small dump some 10 kilometers from Tallinn are all too common. A fire that emitted dangerous smoke burned here for two weeks in August.

Beata Perens, spokeswoman for the Harju country rescue department, said the fire had been the 25th of the year at the dump.

Vaania Ltd., the company operating the dump, paid a fine of 5,940 kroons and will likely lose its license due to numerous violations of waste storage rules, Perens said.

When the sector shrinks and standards are hiked up, prices are likely to rise with them. The average price of leaving a ton of trash at an Estonian dumpsite is 70 kroons.

The Vaatsa waste dump in central Estonia, the only one compatible with EU standards, charges 225 kroons per ton, and the Joelahtme dumpsite will charge up to 430 kroons per ton when it opens in January.

Prices in Sweden and Norway, countries with extremely efficient and environmentally friendly waste management programs, range from 1,500 kroons to 2,200 kroons per ton.

Waste producers, landlords, local governments and the state are responsible for the different stages of waste management. The money comes to the market from waste producers, companies paying taxes for package recycling and taxpayers.