Once the power supply is restored, the Vilnius region waste sorting plant could sort up to half of the usual waste flow, says the head of the plant's operator, Energesman.
According to Algirdas Blazgis, the fire did not affect the area where food and biodegradable waste are handled.
"The roof is burnt down. It's not like the equipment inside has burnt down. There are unaffected devices, as colleagues were able to visually inspect them from a distance. About half of the production area is affected. There is a completely unaffected area where food and biodegradable waste are handled, so we have the opportunity to continue handling them as soon as they allow us to turn on the electricity," the head of Energesman told BNS on Monday evening.
"We will be able to process about 40 percent of all waste, an average of about 800 tons per day. Just starting tomorrow," he added.
According to A. Blazgis, fire affected the conveyors, they will need to be replaced with new or used ones.
"There are few new conveyors like this. (…) This is not a product that you can buy by going to a store," he said.
According to the company's CEO, decision-making is facilitated by the fact that crisis management scenarios have been prepared.
"We ourselves have repeatedly modeled what would happen in such a situation. We have those options. If we can handle 40 percent of waste, then we can actually handle 60 percent with mobile equipment. This would not be as efficient as operating factories," said A. Blazgys.
"We are already talking to partners, we have submitted proposals to municipal companies so that we can start handling all waste either in the territory of our factory or in neighboring territories, around it, nearby, starting next week," the company director said.
A. Blazgys said that he had not yet calculated the preliminary losses.
"It is difficult to say about the losses, because we do not yet have permission to enter the factory. When we get there, we will see what the losses are and decide what the restoration times are," the company's director told BNS.
"I know for sure that one forklift is irreversibly damaged, certain parts of the conveyors (...). In the area affected by the fire, there are 1,5 km of conveyors running in various directions and intertwining," said A. Blazgys.
He did not predict whether insurance funds would be sufficient to cover the losses.
The head of Energesman told BNS that he sees two causes of the fire: poor waste sorting or deliberate arson.
"Where the original fire was, improperly sorted waste is being collected there, but we don't really understand how the fire could have spread so quickly where there is a concrete bunker with concrete walls, so we don't rule out intentional activity. (…) I don't want to speculate, but we live in such geopolitical conditions (…). There was a fire at the same Ikea," A. Blazgys mused.
As the company stated in the statement, initial data indicates that the fire most affected two buildings of the factory and part of the sector where garbage trucks bring and dump mixed waste from residents before sorting.
Two buildings in the eastern part of the factory remained unaffected, and the primary focus will be on renewing waste management there.
As BNS reported, a fire broke out at a waste sorting plant in the Vilnius region on Sunday morning. It was extinguished on Monday. The fire burned down about 7,5 square meters of the building.
The plant operated by Energesman sorts approximately 220 thousand tons of mixed and food waste per year.
Municipal waste is brought to this plant from the entire Vilnius County, which includes eight municipalities: Vilnius City and the districts of Vilnius, Trakai, Elektrėnai, Ukmergė, Švenčionys, Šalčininkai and Širvintos.
The author is Sniegė Balčiūnaitė
