During the week, almost 240 violations were registered in Vilnius during waste management, mostly due to containers not taken out on time.
Rimantas Juknevičius, director of the municipal company "Vilnius waste system administrator" (VASA), told BNS on Tuesday that fines have already been imposed on transporters.
"The general situation in the city of Vilnius is stable, those places that deviate slightly from the schedule - they exist, we fix them. We have recorded 239 violations when containers were not serviced on time. Appropriate sanctions will be applied, which are provided for in the contracts," he said.
According to the head of VASA, most of the fines will be imposed for waste that is not removed on time - it is stipulated that the fine amounts to 60 euros for one container that is not removed on time.
R. Juknevičius claims that the most violations were recorded in the territories served by "Ekonovus" and "Ecoservice" - these companies supervise the entire city, except for its central part.
The director of the company noted that after the reorganization of the waste system started on May 1st, those residents or companies that until then did not pay for waste transportation and were not serviced, and threw waste into other containers, were also included in it. As a result of these decisions, the number of users has increased by up to 30%, so some routes cannot be served in one day. According to him, the situation is particularly difficult in the suburbs.
"If before those who had contracts used to go through in one day, now they can't do it because they have more users, more points. These residents used to transport waste to the city of Vilnius, on the way, to city containers. If they didn't have a contract, they weren't identified in the system, they didn't exist until May 1," explained R. Junkevičius.
After the reorganization of the waste system after May 1, the capital was divided into five parts. The northern, eastern and western zones are served by Ecoservice, the central zone by VSA Vilnius, and Ekonovus in the south. The reorganization aims to implement the principle "everyone uses, everyone pays".
After these changes, waste was not transported in some places, and the Vilnius authorities received criticism from the Ministry of Health. The NVSC warned last week that it may be necessary to declare a state of emergency because of the waste that has not been removed in some places. In response to the garbage crisis in Vilnius, the Environmental Protection and Health Affairs Committees of the Seimas promise to hold a special meeting this week.
R. Juknevičius admits that another wave of indignation is expected when the residents receive the bills. It is planned to start sending them at the end of next week.
Mayor Remigius Šimašius BNS assured that waste removal will be cheaper for the majority of the population, especially in apartment buildings.
"Obviously, if there is a particularly large single-family house, it can also increase for some businesses. it is natural that there will be all kinds of situations, but for the absolute majority of people, the prices should decrease not a little, but significantly", he had no doubt.
Author: Ignas Jačauskas
