Landfill management in Lithuania

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 inLithuania.The majority of existing operational landfills fail to meet even basic environmental andsanitary-hygienic requirements.Minister of Environment approved Rules for Setting Up, Operating, Closure and After-Careof Landfills of Waste in the year 2000. The procedure for the disposal of waste in landfillsand the requirements for setting up, operating, closure and after-care of landfills so as toprevent 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 riskto human health, have been defined in these rules.Draft Strategic Plan of the Network of Landfills for Non-hazardous (Municipal) Wasteprepared last year. The aim of this plan is to establish the procedure for closing down theexisting landfills, site-conditioning operations and setting up new regional landfills (bydeveloping regional municipal waste management systems) and to foresee the costs. It wascalculated that in economic terms, taking into consideration costs of the transport of waste tolandfills and the setting up, operating, closure and after-care of landfills, Lithuania wouldbenefit most if it had 12 landfills.Both documents mentioned above have been developed taking into consideration therequirements laid down by the European Union in the field of environmental protection andensures the attainment of the targets laid down in the Directive on the Landfill of Waste(1999/31/EC).