Vilnius region sorts less than 40 percent of waste, ministry says

The Vilnius region sorts less than 40 percent of its municipal waste, well below the national target of at least 70 percent, LRT reports, citing Environment Ministry officials.

Environment Vice-Minister Giedrė Ričkutė told the Seimas Audit Committee on Wednesday that the region’s waste collection and management infrastructure was not delivering the expected results.

“Despite significant European Union investment, the infrastructure in place is not producing the desired outcome,” Ričkutė said. She added that the sorting rate in the municipalities of the Vilnius region was insufficient to meet targets set in the national waste management and prevention plan.

Ričkutė said the results required greater attention from all municipalities in the region, including stronger efforts to inform and encourage residents to sort their waste properly.

Vilma Slavinskienė, head of the Environment Ministry’s Waste Policy Group, said the Alytus region was the leader in waste management and met the targets. Other regions achieved average sorting rates of 50 to 60 percent, she said.

More than 26 million euros in EU funding was allocated to waste management infrastructure in the Vilnius region between 2014 and 2020, according to Ričkutė.

The ministry plans to promote recycling and increase the amount of separately collected waste, including food waste, as it seeks to improve Lithuania’s progress towards EU targets. Ričkutė said future EU investment would be directed towards those priorities.

She also said Lithuania’s waste incineration capacity was sufficient if the system operated smoothly. According to Ričkutė, a fire had disrupted the system in the Vilnius region, causing large quantities of waste to accumulate and triggering a chain reaction.