Vilnius mayor calls waste incineration capacity bottleneck

Waste incineration capacity across Lithuania has become the bottleneck in the waste management chain, Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas said, according to LRT.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas on Monday, Benkunskas said the country relies on three waste-burning plants, meaning fires or maintenance work can quickly create problems.

“Today, the bottleneck is waste incineration infrastructure, which is set out in our national legislation,” he said, adding that he would not dramatise the situation.

According to the mayor, other regions could temporarily store sorted waste prepared for incineration, as Vilnius is currently doing. He said waste sorting in Vilnius was proceeding smoothly, while the Environment Ministry and other state institutions were responsible for coordinating waste flows.

Vilnius also needs significantly greater incineration capacity, Benkunskas said. The city is currently processing its regular waste stream and taking additional waste from the plant where material has accumulated over several years. He said the city would use any opportunity to incinerate more waste, although technical and legal issues remained.

“Waste management is not getting stuck anywhere, and sorting is taking place in all regions,” Benkunskas said. “Incineration issues are being resolved by the national government and the Environment Ministry.”

Druskininkai Mayor Ričardas Malinauskas said on Monday that if the Vilnius cogeneration plant accepts only waste from the Vilnius region, the Alytus region will exceed its permitted storage limit for waste intended for incineration in about a month.

Vilnius Cogeneration Plant representative Rima Aukštuolytė told BNS on Friday that the plant was currently burning only waste from the Vilnius region because of clogged filters. She said the plant was burning up to 450 tonnes a day, while about 700 tonnes of waste are generated daily in Vilnius County alone.

Kaunas Cogeneration Plant, which also burns waste, is currently undergoing repairs. Waste is also burned at the Gren Klaipėda combined heat and power plant, operated by the energy company Gren.

The waste crisis in the Vilnius region began after a fire last year at the Vilnius mixed municipal waste sorting plant. The facility has not yet resumed operations, while the Vilnius cogeneration plant has reduced its incineration volumes.

The Vilnius city council meeting on the crisis did not take place because too few council members attended.

After the Vilnius Regional Waste Management Centre took control of the mixed municipal waste sorting plant from Energesman and reached agreements with other companies on waste sorting, Benkunskas said there was no cheaper alternative for managing the waste.

He reiterated that residents’ waste bills would not increase because of the crisis.