Landfill management in Lithuania

Abstract

There are about 680 small municipal waste landfills/ dumping sites with an area below 1 ha,
about 120 medium-size landfills with an area of I to 5 ha and 35 large (>5 ha) landfills in
Lithuania.
The majority of existing operational landfills fail to meet even basic environmental and
sanitary-hygienic requirements.
Minister of Environment approved Rules for Setting Up, Operating, Closure and After-Care
of Landfills of Waste in the year 2000. The procedure for the disposal of waste in landfills
and the requirements for setting up, operating, closure and after-care of landfills so as to
prevent or reduce as far as possible negative effects of landfills on the environment,
particularly surface water and groundwater, soil and atmosphere, as well as any resulting risk
to human health, have been defined in these rules.
Draft Strategic Plan of the Network of Landfills for Non-hazardous (Municipal) Waste
prepared last year. The aim of this plan is to establish the procedure for closing down the
existing landfills, site-conditioning operations and setting up new regional landfills (by
developing regional municipal waste management systems) and to foresee the costs. It was
calculated that in economic terms, taking into consideration costs of the transport of waste to
landfills and the setting up, operating, closure and after-care of landfills, Lithuania would
benefit most if it had 12 landfills.
Both documents mentioned above have been developed taking into consideration the
requirements laid down by the European Union in the field of environmental protection and
ensures the attainment of the targets laid down in the Directive on the Landfill of Waste
(1999/31/EC).