Vilnius city municipalities the council began to discuss the provisions of the local fee for the collection and management of municipal and other household waste and the amount of the fee. With the approval of the City Council, an average of 60 sq. m apartment owner, the fee for municipal waste management will increase by 3 euros and will cost about 61 euros per year. For business representatives, depending on the purpose of the real estate object, the price of waste collection and management increases by 5-20 euros per year on average.
Pricing changes
If the City Council approves the decision, the new prices will take effect from the beginning of next year.
"We must change the municipal waste collection and management regulations, because we are obliged by national legislation. The toll is increasing due to the changed pricing: the regional price set by the state has started to be applied, the population is growing - the volume of waste management services is also increasing. The costs are also increasing due to the operational costs of the taken over homeless containers, due to changes in the prices of newly concluded and planned public procurement contracts", says Eglė Bernotavičienė, head of the Waste Management Sub-Department of the Vilnius City Municipality.
She emphasized that according to the new procedure, after correcting the legal loophole that existed until now, the costs will include not only municipal waste, but also the costs of managing other household waste - construction waste, tax-free tires, e.g. waste management costs of bicycles, wheelchairs, rollerblades, skateboards, scooters, baby or other strollers and tires weighing less than 3 kg.
The regional price will be determined by the state
If the laws change, the amount of the waste management fee will partly depend on the regional price approved by the State Energy Regulatory Council according to the methodology for determining the regional price of municipal waste management. This is the price of waste management set for three years, based on the necessary and reasonable costs related to the management of municipal waste and other household waste, required to carry out regulated activities, to ensure the long-term operation, renovation and development of regional municipal waste management facilities intended for the management of municipal waste and other household waste , for ensuring the provision of acceptable municipal waste management services and reducing environmental pollution.
Taking into account the established regional price and the necessary costs incurred by the waste collector, the cost of one ton of waste collection and processing for the year 2025 is estimated at 207,85 EUR/t.
As before, the cost of waste collection and transportation services, the maintenance and development of waste collection infrastructure, the costs of waste management systems and funds administration, and the implementation of waste prevention measures will affect the amount of the toll.
The bureaucratic burden for those leaving is reduced
For residents, the utility fee will increase by several euros per year. For 60 sq. meters, you will have to pay about 61 EUR per year. 170 square meters For the owners of their own house with an area of m, the fee will increase by about 5 EUR and they will have to pay about 106 EUR per year for waste.
According to the new regulations, the administrative burden for residents going abroad is reduced. If leaving for more than a year, the property owner will only need to declare his departure once and will not have to submit a request to be exempted from the variable part of the fee again every year, if the resident will not need the waste collection and management service.
The new regulation proposes to abandon the sending of excess payment notices by regular mail, that is, by paper letters. If the user of payment platforms has chosen to receive notifications via payment platforms or e-mail. by mail, invoices will no longer be sent by regular mail. In addition, if messages sent by mail do not reach the resident either at the declared address of the place of residence or at another address known to the administrator, they will not be sent again by mail - instead, they will be placed on the self-service website www.vasa.lt. This decision will help to reduce the costs of toll administration.
Waste - only in the designated container
Residents and legal entities will have to use not only the mixed waste collection containers assigned to them, but also the collection infrastructure for packaging waste, secondary raw materials and food waste (once they are used). Until now, considering the fact that not all places have been able to separate waste, it was possible to throw it into any of the appropriate waste sorting or general use containers in the city.
The draft regulations introduce the minimum actual amount of collected waste from an individual use container - 40,08 kg per year. This figure was chosen based on the data provided by the World Bank, that on average, about 0,74 kg of waste is generated per person per day.
"Determining the minimum amount allows you to avoid cases of abuse, when those with individual containers throw their waste into shared containers not assigned to them and thus avoid paying the variable part of the fee," explained E. Bernotavičienė.
What is changing for companies?
As before, the municipal waste fee for non-residential buildings and premises will depend on their area. For medium-sized administrative, service, trade, catering, manufacturing and industrial buildings, the annual fee will increase by about 5-20 EUR per year.
The calculation of the toll for storage buildings is changing. Once the new regulations are approved, storage buildings will be taxed according to the number of objects and their purpose. The draft regulations establish seven categories of storage buildings, for which the fee will be calculated according to the newly introduced taxation criteria.
In 2024, the amount of mixed municipal waste to be collected and handled is 142 tons per year (918 tons handled in 2023).
