VAATC does not hold an Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC/TIPK) permit required to operate the Vilnius mixed waste treatment plant. VAATC is currently managing waste in violation of the Environmental Protection Law. Obtaining a new IPPC permit may take between one and three years, and until then the activities would be carried out unlawfully. Today, the plant was not operating because its electricity supply had been disconnected.
Existing permit will not be transferred
The currently valid IPPC permit has been issued to the plant operator, UAB Energesman, with whom VAATC still has a valid operating agreement.
“We will certainly not agree to transfer our existing IPPC permit to VAATC, which has taken over the plant. They will have to start the entire permitting process from the beginning. This will be a long and complicated process that will take several years,” says Algirdas Blazgys, CEO of Energesman.
Decisions adopted by the Vilnius City Emergency Operations Centre have lower legal authority and cannot justify VAATC’s unlawful activities carried out without a pollution permit required under the Environmental Protection Law.
Electricity supply disconnected
This morning, electricity was disconnected at the Vilnius waste sorting plant and the facility was completely shut down.
To date, VAATC has not returned all assets located at the plant that belong to Energesman. Their value amounts to approximately EUR 3 million and includes shredders, magnets, bioconversion equipment, construction materials, computers, and other property.
The value of Energesman’s assets located at the plant exceeds the value of the equipment owned by VAATC itself, which amounts to only about EUR 2 million.
“Today VAATC allowed employees to retrieve part of their personal tools and tools belonging to the company. These tools had been stored in a container that VAATC representatives unlawfully broke into. Some tools were missing and had been used without authorization by VAATC representatives,” says Blazgys.
VAATC also unilaterally moved one of Energesman’s shredders outside the plant territory, where the area is not protected, without informing the company.
Waste is being managed at significantly higher cost
The independent civic public procurement analysis initiative *Viešpirkiai* has published contracts concluded by VAATC with Ecoservice, Ekonovus, and the Vilnius Combined Heat and Power Plant.
Under these contracts, VAATC has committed to pay EUR 62.8 per tonne (excluding VAT) to Ecoservice and EUR 77 per tonne (excluding VAT) to Ekonovus for waste treatment.
An additional EUR 73 per tonne (excluding VAT) is paid to the Vilnius Combined Heat and Power Plant for waste incineration.
Additional costs are also incurred for treatment of the biological fraction of waste in the Vilnius MBA tunnels currently operated by VAATC, although the exact price of this service has not been disclosed.
As a result, the total waste management cost may reach EUR 130 per tonne, whereas Energesman previously managed waste for EUR 53.81 per tonne (excluding VAT), including incineration and treatment of the biological fraction.
The publicly accessible website Viespirkiai.org also lists additional contracts concluded by VAATC for the rental of loaders, screeners and lifting equipment, waste transportation, security services, cleaning services, and public relations services. The total value of contracts concluded during July has already reached EUR 10.58 million.
“It is obvious that waste generated by residents of the Vilnius region is already being managed at more than twice the previous cost. VAATC is wasting reserves accumulated from residents’ payments that should have been used for investment and improvement of the waste management system – this is criminal,” Blazgys emphasizes.
As blogger Skirmantas Malinauskas publicly stated on Sunday, the takeover of the Vilnius mixed waste plant is part of an ongoing redistribution of the waste market. Competitors are currently in a particularly advantageous position to take over the plant because all preparatory work for rebuilding the new waste sorting facility has already been completed.