The mayor of the capital Valdas Benkunskas says that after the fire at the Vilnius waste sorting plant, only a "small portion of waste" is still not being sorted.
"The entire flow of Vilnius city waste – 400 tons of mixed municipal waste – is already being sorted and, after sorting, is brought to the Vilnius cogeneration power plant on private lines for incineration," the head of the capital told reporters on Wednesday.
According to him, other municipalities in the region direct their waste to Alytus or Panevėžys.
"Most of the waste is managed properly: it is sorted and then sent to incineration plants. This is a small part of the waste yet (not being managed – BNS). There are still problems and we are looking for private entities where those lines could be set up and sorting could be carried out," he said. V. Benkunskas.
The mayor of the capital stated that the possibility of burning unsorted waste at the Vilnius cogeneration power plant, if such a need arises, is currently being discussed with the national government.
"There are a lot of bureaucratic issues there regarding European Union support, regarding all kinds of pollution permits," said the head of Vilnius.
The Vilnius region faced waste management problems on Sunday after a fire broke out at a sorting plant.
This is the main place where waste is sorted in the region. Garbage is brought to it from eight municipalities: Vilnius city, Vilnius, Trakai, Elektrėnai, Ukmergė, Švenčionys, Šalčininkai and Širvintos districts.
The plant, operated by Energesman, sorts about 220 tons of mixed and food waste per year. The fire destroyed about 7,5 square meters of the building.
Energesman CEO Algirdas Blazgys told reporters that electricity at the plant would be restored on Thursday.
"This is one of our most important tasks," he said.
According to A. Blazgis, this will not only allow for the resumption of some waste sorting, but also to assess the extent of damage to the equipment.
As A. Balzgys previously told BNS, once the electricity supply is restored, the plant would operate at 40 percent capacity, with the remaining 60 percent of waste being sorted using mobile equipment.
"We want to restore our waste sorting capacities as soon as possible so that there are no complicated solutions such as transporting waste to other regions," said the operator's manager.
According to him, the first mobile devices should reach the waste sorting center on Monday, and the rest by the end of next week.
Author Augustas Stankevičius
