The system of waste management in lithuania

SUMARRY REGIONAL WASTE MANAGEMENT IN LITHUANIA The Lithuanian National Strategic Waste Management Plan prepared in the end of the year 2001, among other important issues emphasises the principles of establishment of the municipal and regional waste management systems. Moreover, it is stated in the Plan that implementation of strict environmental requirements for waste collection, recovery and disposal is possible only if those systems are big enough, provide services to a sufficient amount of economical entities and manage a substantial amount of waste. In order to increase efficiency of the overall system, municipalities are recommended to co-operate in establishing regional waste management systems. The establishment of a network of rationally arranged installations for waste disposal is perceived as one of the principal measures for creating a modern waste management system. The State supports establishment and development of such regional arrangements, through support of both national and international funds. The Strategic Municipal Landfill Network Plan conceptualizes construction of 11 regional landfills for municipal waste and estimates the costs of the closure of existing landfills and construction of the new ones. The establishment of the regional waste management systems includes the following steps:  Construction of a new landfill;  Closure of the biggest and most environmentally threatening landfill;  Establishment of an integrated waste collection and sorting system encompassing the whole region;  Closure of the rest of the existing landfills. Most of the landfills in all region are illegal, meaning that they do not have permits from the Regional Environmental Departments, they are installed without approved technical design documentation and bottom lining, there are no official land-use agreements with appropriate environmental and land-use organizations, etc. The landfills are attributed to local municipalities on the territories of which they are located but the municipalities do not have any legal and financial means to guarantee environmentally safe exploitation of the landfills. Sometimes local municipalities even do not have exact data on volume and composition of waste. Typical waste in the municipal landfills is: Various unsorted non-hazardous household waste: glass, paper, plastic, polyethene containers or foodstuffs; packages of domestic chemical substances, old parts of cars, tyres; waste from house destruction, tins, waste from metal tools and agricultural equipment; plenty of organic agricultural waste, stumps, trunks and sawdust, slate, bricks, straw, chaff, rotten vegetables and other gardening waste; containers of paint, solvents and other containers for building and renovation materials and domestic chemical substances; packages of hazardous substances used in household (washing and cleaning substances, solvents) and other domestic chemical substances. To awoid such prooblems an all regions of Lithuania we have to develop regional vwaste management system, wich can help us to sort our waste in home, save our natural resources by recyclikling, save our environment, there will be easier figure waste from polluters and easier to implement “polluter pays” principle