2+2 million EUR – that is the amount of damage the fire caused to the plant building and equipment. We will compensate this amount in full. And not only that – in total, we will cover around EUR 10 million in compensation and investments.
The value of the fire damage was assessed by independent experts hired by the Vilnius Regional Waste Management Centre (VAATC), and similar loss estimates were calculated by our own specialists. The settlement agreement regarding compensation for the damage and the conditions for modernising the plant was approved by the Vilnius District Court.
“We will compensate for the damage to the plant building and equipment, and we will also cover the majority of future investments in modern equipment, as we take our operational commitments seriously. Our shared goal is to create an advanced waste sorting facility in Vilnius that uses the latest technologies. We want to restore the plant’s full operations as quickly as possible, as negotiations on the agreement took time,” says Algirdas Blazgys, CEO of our company.
The plant and its equipment were insured by BTA Baltic Insurance Company. The insurer has already paid EUR 0.5 million to VAATC as compensation for the lost equipment. This payment has been deducted from the compensation we are paying.
We agreed to rebuild the facility with modern equipment that meets today’s technological standards, rather than replacing it with the same systems that had been operating in the plant for more than 10 years and were lost in the fire.
We will also cover the majority (around EUR 6 million) of these additional investments, as throughout the remaining operational period of the plant we will compensate VAATC each month for the depreciation value of the new equipment, as well as annual interest of 6% on the total investment amount.
We will also pay VAATC a share of the profits earned, or revenues if they exceed the agreed threshold.
This means we have undertaken significant financial commitments and will need to operate very efficiently in order to meet them.
We are doing all of this to ensure that Vilnius has a modern, robotised waste sorting facility. And, as emphasised by Elida Drapienė, CEO of VAATC, to ensure that waste management costs for residents do not increase.
The fire at the waste sorting plant was extinguished on April 28 last year. A report by the Fire Research Centre confirmed that we have followed all fire safety and equipment operation regulations, and that the cause of the fire was external.
The Vilnius MBA Plant began operations more than 10 years ago. Mixed municipal waste from across the Vilnius region is brought there for sorting. The region includes eight municipalities: the City of Vilnius and the districts of Vilnius, Trakai, Elektrėnai, Ukmergė, Švenčionys, Šalčininkai, and Širvintos.
Last year, we sorted 202,000 tonnes of mixed municipal waste at the plant. The majority of the waste (93%) was recovered and reused: recyclable materials were sent for recycling, SRF fuel produced from waste was delivered to a cement plant, and other waste was used as fuel at the Vilnius Cogeneration Plant.