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Changes in estimated taxes reflect both waste management trends and habits that residents could change to reduce taxes and their impact on the environment.
According to VASA Director Justina Prunskienė, compared to 2020, this year’s model for calculating the fee for mixed municipal waste management has not changed: the “polluter pays” principle is still respected. However, he notes that this year’s taxes were directly affected by the actual amount of mixed waste collected last year.
“The change in toll rates is reflected in the adjustments in the payment messages. If last year the resident added more mixed waste than expected, this year the toll will be higher for him.
Residents who last year managed their waste responsibly, tried to sort it and reduced the total amount of mixed waste, will pay slightly lower fees for waste management this year, ”says J. Prunskienė.
The amount of the toll compared to last year may differ not only for residents of private homes, but also for those who used shared containers for mixed municipal waste. If large-scale waste dumps were left unauthorized alongside the containers and managed at the expense of the municipality, these costs were equally distributed to the real estate objects assigned to the container site. In such cases, the mixed waste management fee may increase by an average of several euros.
The VASA director points out that last year the consumption habits of the population and the total amount of municipal waste in Vilnius may have been significantly affected by the country’s coronavirus pandemic and quarantine.
During it, a large part of the population repaired their homes, renovated the interior and acquired various household items in online stores, most of which opened their containers in or near mixed waste containers.
Over the past year, VASA inspectors have detected around 9,730 large-scale illegal waste dumps, primarily in the courtyards of apartment buildings in the northern and western parts of the city.
According to the director of VASA, up to 21 percent. Waste dumped by Vilnius residents into the mixed municipal waste stream last year consisted of secondary raw materials, packaging, bulky waste and others. Compared to 2019, this amount increased by 5 percent last year.
“Last year, about a fifth or 38.4 thousand. Tons of waste that residents could dump in classified packaging and containers of secondary raw materials, delivered to special large-scale sites or other waste collection points, where in many cases they are accepted at no additional charge.
In this way, they would have significantly reduced the amount of mixed waste and, at the same time, the fees for its management, ”says J. Prunskienė.
According to her, it can be concluded that it is necessary to sensitize citizens and develop a culture of intelligent waste management.
Encouraging the population to manage their waste responsibly, we emphasize that the classification and correct handling of waste have a direct impact on the amount of mixed waste, which determines both the level of fees for handling this waste such as reducing environmental pollution.
Therefore, this year we are activating not only waste management control, but also cooperation with city elders and citizen education. We believe that the promotion of waste classification in public education requires a much more active participation of producer and importer organizations, which are responsible for the management of packaging and secondary raw materials ”, says the director of VASA.
The mixed municipal waste toll for Vilnius city residents is calculated according to a two-tier system, consisting of two parts: fixed and variable.
The fixed part covers the costs of maintaining the mixed waste infrastructure, the variable part covers the costs of collecting, transporting and managing this waste.
The fee does not include the costs of handling classified packaging and secondary raw materials, as well as the waste of the homeless (abandoned in forests, fields or other open areas).
