Reforming of the waste management companies in response to EU requirements Armands Nikolajevs Latvian Association of Waste Management Companies

Insight themes  Situation in Latvian waste management untill  Changes after joing the EU  Todays trends

Insight into the history  Untill year was just municipals companies (more than 100)  privatization of companies and land took place.  the pilot study to establish a first regional waste management company.  the container management system begins to operate (example,Green Dot, Green Belt etc)  regional companies are created. Foreign companies starts to work in waste collection area

What hapenned after joing the EU  National legislation harmonised with EU directives.  National Waste Management Law entered into force from , but several changes were made in the last 4 years.  EU Waste Framework directive  Their organizations for legislations (Ministry of Regional Development and Local Governments, Ministry of Economic Affair, etc)

Main activities  Greater attention tosecondary use of materials– resource saving policies  Regional centres increase interest  Government responsibilities compartment  The growing importance of society education in waste management

Troubles  Fast growth of service prices for waste management  The EU directive that requires large financial resources that are not always offered by the local authorities  Interpretation of the translated EU directives  Packaging sales market for appropriate pricing  Dificult to separate categories of the packaging sorting rules  Capital Riga as a special case

Benefits  EU fonds available for organizing systems  Competition wich retains a certain period of stable prices of services to citizens  Cleaned environment  Interest on a dialog between different organizations, wich allows sound to move decision making  Transnational cooperation in separate waste stream management, especially hazardous waste

Some interesting figures  Dump sites fell from more than 500 to 11 controlled landfill  In next 2 years grow up Natural resources tax for disposed waste from 1,07 EUR/t to 10,68 EUR/t.  Tarrif for disposed waste in landfill at a moment is from 22 – 31 EUR/t  In Latvia each inhabitants produced per year aprx 220 kg waste  Tarrif for inhabitants at a moment is from EUR/m3 or 0,6-1,25 EUR/pers in month.  Municipalities investment parts in projects is from 0- 25%

Thank’s for attention 