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The glass, paper or plastic containers have been overfilled for several months now, and S. Raubickas, a resident of Baltupiai, who has wanted to draw the attention of the municipality to this problem, has been forced to explain the fine imposed on his mother.
Although municipal officials advised him to pay the fine for holy peace, the Vilnius neighbor decided not to keep silent. He takes pictures of overcrowded shipping containers, clutter in the courtyards of apartment buildings on Didlaukio and Baltupio streets every day and intends to send a bunch of photos to the commission, which will investigate his mother’s misdemeanor, at the end of March.
At that time, the municipality was unable to implement the container classification procedure, although it was criticized by the Ministry of the Environment.
The woman showed the photo
S. Raubickas said that there was a lack of order of containers in Baltupiai for a long time. It is true that residents who leave bulky waste next to them are also partly to blame.
The day her mother brought the cardboard box, the paper and cardboard container was also overflowing. Since the family has been sorting waste for a long time, the Vilnius resident did not want to violate this provision. Therefore, he placed the box on top of the container.
It is possible that the wind blew the box and found it on the ground by the controllers of the municipal company Vilnius Waste System Administrator (VASA).
There was an address in the box, so it was not difficult for them to find the woman.
The controllers took a photo of the box, showed it to S. Raubickas’s mother and imposed a fine of 50 euros.
The man went hunting
Raubickas tried to seek justice not only at VASA, where he was offered to pay a fine for his peace of mind, but also at the headquarters of the waste hauler Ekonovus. Here it was explained to him that the packages had not been removed in time because the car had broken down.
“The administrator of the Ekonovus company told me like this: ‘If the containers are overcrowded, you have to take the garbage home. The fine was imposed and nobody cares how packaging and waste are handled, ”said the Vilnius resident.
And Darius Vasiliauskas, the chief specialist of the municipality’s Prevention and Justice Branch, did not speak. The box that was left in place has been photographed and the address is visible on it.
Then S. Raubickas had the idea to photograph the addresses of other Vilnius residents who placed the containers next to the containers, on which the surnames can be seen. Now he already has 12 photos of this type and the collection is replenished every day, because until now there is no order in Baltupiai.
His last photo is a package of food delivered by a courier to one of the residents of Baltupiai. There is in the box and your address and phone number.
After seeing the overcrowded containers, S. Raubickas had called VASA before and heard the same response: He would not take the trash out of the right place, because it is not scheduled.
“If you already take care of city cleanup and catch violators, you need to take out the trash when the dumpsters are full,” said S. Raubickas.
The vice mayor just turned around
The municipality saw only after the New Year, when through the mountains of waste and packaging, the containers themselves could no longer be seen. Officials explained that the increase in garbage was due to the fact that most Vilnius residents spent their holidays at home.
However, the municipality did not take responsibility for the packages not shipped, explaining that producer and importers’ organizations are responsible for their collection.
“We are in a difficult situation: we are responsible for the orderly face of the city of Vilnius, but when it comes to handling the packaging, our hands are tied,” said Deputy Mayor Valdas Benkunskas. – We do not have tools to control the quality of packaging waste management in the city, which currently does not meet the needs of the population, although the obligation to monitor the management of waste generated falls on the municipality. This is a serious discrepancy that needs to be addressed urgently. “
The situation is unsatisfactory
The waste is divided into mixed services and packaging. VASA is in charge of the mixed management of municipal waste.
The management of packaging waste is entrusted to organizations of producers and importers who contract private waste management companies. The latter must ensure that the containers for secondary raw materials are in order.
But the current situation, in the words of V. Benkunskas, is unsatisfactory, as is also demonstrated by the huge amounts of garbage accumulated around the containers of secondary raw materials.
However, even when the municipality registers multiple infractions, the producer and importer organizations do not take measures to improve the situation.
Blaming others for all the blame
The mess is due to the fact that the tender for the management of packaging and its waste is announced by the municipality, and the winning waste management companies are paid by the producer and importer organizations for the waste disposal services provided.
The municipality explains that it only supervises waste management and participates in the organization of purchases, but must coordinate the conditions of the tender with producers and importers who are interested in managing the waste generated in the cheapest way possible. They think that the quality of waste management and the frequency of garbage collection do not satisfy the residents of Vilnius.
According to the deputy mayor, manufacturers and importers do not agree with the conditions set by the municipality and have been delaying the bidding procedures for more than a year.
VASA, which administers the mixed municipal waste management system, announced that a third of the reports that the population receives each month consist of requests and complaints related to the management of packaging waste.
And during the holidays, the number of messages of this type increases by up to 95 percent.
VASA Director Justina Prunskienė said the company’s employees are trying to get out of the situation; They are consulting with packaging managers about problem cases, asking to increase the frequency of this waste disposal at least during the holidays, but it all depends on the goodwill of the service providers.
Can the ministry dig?
The Minister of the Environment, Simon Gentville, recently acknowledged that there is a systemic crisis in the packaging management process. He discussed it with the representatives of the Vilnius municipality.
“Not only the regions suffer from non-removable bells, but Vilnius residents also see that the classified waste containers are clogged and not removed,” said S. Gentvilas.
V. Benkunskas, who participated in the meeting, again did not see the fault of the municipality: “When we publicly expressed our anger or assessment of the situation, the Minister recognized that only the Ministry can resolve this situation.”
