Recyclable materials still end up in Latvia’s household waste

Latvia is sorting more waste, but recyclable materials still frequently end up in household waste, LSM reported. This increases waste volumes and bills while damaging materials that could otherwise be recycled.

Maija Krastiņa, a member of the Zero Waste Latvia association and a circular economy expert, examined an open waste collection point at a multi-apartment building in Imanta. The site serves a building with about 70 apartments and has containers for household waste, packaging, glass, bio-waste and textiles.

Krastiņa said the building’s waste bill was particularly high at 15 euros per person. For a family, that can amount to 60, 70 or sometimes 80 euros. She said six euros per person would be a good figure, and that the bill could potentially be reduced further.

In addition to sorting waste, residents could lower costs by reducing the number of containers or the frequency of collection, Krastiņa said. She noted that residents often say the large household waste containers are only half full, meaning they are effectively paying for the collection of empty space.

Residents can request changes to the number of containers and collection frequency from the building’s manager.

Inspecting the bio-waste container, Krastiņa found it was about half full but contained two plastic bags. One had been placed inside a compostable bio-waste bag, while cat litter had also been thrown into the container. She said cat litter should not be disposed of there.