The head of Alytus KRACT calls the preparation for food waste management in Lithuania chaos

“In any case, looking at the whole situation, which is coming up on January 1, everything smells of such chaos. We shared experience on how to collect, European experience, but what is happening now in Vilnius – I am very critical of the bag system, which is not a sorting collection at all, it is practically illegal single-use plastic products released on the market, without any sorting, without a possibility of how the waste will be separated, in what way”, A. Reipas told LRT radio on Wednesday.

Vilma Slavinskienė, head of the Waste Policy Group of the Ministry of the Environment, told LRT radio that currently the municipalities of Panevėžys and Alytus collect food and kitchen waste, and the latter has been doing this for five years. Pilot projects were also held in some other municipalities. Currently, bags are being distributed in the capital, in which residents will store food waste.

“From January 1 of next year, waste collection will begin, some municipalities will start later, but all will start collecting next year,” said V. Slavinskienė.

According to A.Reip, the ministry has not prepared a clear procedure for collecting food waste, municipalities will do it according to their own understanding. According to him, the fact that not everyone will collect in the same way and start at different times, “the waste management system in such a situation is discredited to infinity”.

“After such organizations and following the instructions of the ministry, following the efforts of the municipalities, following the purchases, it turns out that some municipalities can do nothing, others must do everything even now. I think that no one has any moral right to demand anything from the municipality, because there are no clear order or sorting requirements. Everyone treats what sorting collection is, as they imagine”, said A.Reipas.

According to A. Slavinskienė, it is unrealistic to prepare the same requirements for all municipalities, because they are different – some are more urbanized, others are rural.

“Actually, maybe Algirdas has thickened the colors, I wouldn’t estimate that there is complete chaos, following the residents have learned what sorting collection is, they sort other waste, each system needs time to accelerate,” said A. Slavinskienė.

According to her, the sorting of packages was also a long-term process, but even during it, not all residents have the skills, so further information and education will be needed.

According to A.Reip, the municipality of Alytus feels in a “fool’s place” because, in accordance with European requirements, it started sorting food waste five years ago, “because cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants had to sort from 2019”.

Currently, municipalities deal with the issue of food waste sorting in different ways. When the Vilnius municipality started distributing colored bags, it received criticism that by abandoning plastic bags, their quantity is increased even more.

Eglė Bernotavičienė, head of the Waste Management Sub-Department of Vilnius Municipality, told LRT radio that the bags are made of 90% recycled plastic, and waste management keeps it out of landfills. Food waste will go into mixed containers, but these special bags will allow the food waste to be sorted later in the process.

According to A. Reipa, the container method of collection is considered the only sustainable method of food waste management, which yields 90 percent. efficiency. According to him, in Norway, an attempt was made to collect waste with bags near the capital, the efficiency was 50%. and this remedy did not work.

The municipality of Klaipėda distributes containers to residents of individual houses, while Klaipėda residents living in apartment buildings will have to put food waste into special containers installed in the yards.