Landfill problems in Vilnius city

Abstract

Vilnius City has two sanitary landfills, which are on operation now, one is Kariotiskes household waste landfill, started at 1987, second is demolition and construction waste landfill, ready to be closed. There are four closed and recultivated household waste landfills in Vilnius city and close to it. The main problems of closed landfils are the same as of working one - biogas leakage almost in all of them, what is not environmentally safe; another problem is leachate production, which is especially increasing in autumn and spring seasons in Kariotiskes and still is a problem in two closed landfills. Collection of recycleable materials was started at sources in 1994. Four fractions are collected : paper, glass, plastic and metal. In 1997 two special sites for collection of bulky waste were opened. Sorting of various recycleable materials at the landfill was started in 1992. The premises were built for sorting, packing and storage of saved materials. Paper, plastic metal , glass, wood, bricks etc. are collected there. The first row of Kariotiskes landfill - 10,5 ha area has reached 25-30 m high hill. It was closed in 1996. The recultivation project is on competition now.We are looking for a new site , which could serve for sorting, crushing and reusing of demolition waste.The problem is iron - concrete.