1. W aste sorting and
recycling in Lithuania
Presentation made by students from “Žiburys“ gymnasium
2012-2013 m.

2. Why do we need to sort
waste?
 A lot of secondary materials
accumulated;
 Saves natural resources and
energy;
 Reduces the expense of waste
management;
 Litter decomposition takes a very
long time;
 Litter pollutes nature, does harm to
plants, animals and people.

3. How to sort your waste correctly?
Paper
Paper containers can contain:
 newspapers;
 magazines and other printings;
 envelopes, flyers, printing and writing
paper, books without hard covers;
 cardboard boxes;
 corrugated cardboard boxes;
 packing paper.

4. Glass
Glass containers can contain:
bottles; Bottles and jars should be clean, without
plugs, rings and foil.
jars;
other glass waste.

5. Plastic
Plastic containers can contain:
 plastic PET bottles;
 plastic containers from sauces,
mayonnaise, dish detergent,
shampoo; Packets should
be clean.
 polyethylene film;
 other plastic packets, toys,
dishes.

6. Metal
In Lithuania, we collect metal waste and take it
to metal buying points or put it into
containers for glass.
The following items can be put into containers
for glass :
 Food tins;
 Cans of drinks;
 Aluminun plates and baking tins;
 Metal covers, boxes and all other metal
packing waste.

7. Household waste
We can put into household waste containers :
 Inappropriate paper for recycling (like
wallpapers);
 Inappropriate glass for recycling (like mirrors,
porcelain);
 Inappropriate plastic for recycling (like oil
tanks);
 Inappropriate metal for recycling (like cans
with paints, aerosol cans);
 Other household waste.

8. We also sort:
Medical waste;
Organic waste.

9. Sorting in Lithuania
Lithuania is considered a
beginner country in sorting;
Lithuania is one of the last
countries in the European Union
in terms of sorting waste;
In the EU, we are the second
from the end in waste sorting.

10. Containers
In Lithuania waste
is sorted into
containers which
are called bells.

11. Number of containers
600 inhabitants in Lithuanian towns
and 800 – in villages share one set
of containers.
However, in Šakiai district there
are even 2,5 times more containers
then there has to be: 192
inhabitants in town and 724 – in
villages use one set of containers.

12. Waste management companies
 Ltd. “Ekonovus”, which has
its own subunit in all
Lithuania and also, in our
town Šakiai.
 Ltd. “Marijampolės
apskrities atliekų tvarkymo
centras”, which also manages
waste in our town Šakiai.

13. What is waste remaking?
Remaking is a
process, which allows
repeatedly use
recycled waste.

14. Why do we have to remake
waste?
 Manufacturing new things from secondary
raw materials, we not only protect nature,
but also we save its resources;
 Each ton of recycled paper or cardboard
saves 17 trees, 26 460 liter of water and
enough energy that an ordinary house
would be made winterproof for 6 months;
 Even one third of truncated trees are used
for paper production in the whole world.
Probably, only few people think that the
same paper can be recycled even 4-6 times;

15.  Glass can be recycled for thousands of
times without any harm to its quality;
 It is enough to recycle just one glass
bottle and you will save enough quantity
of energy for your computer to work for
20 minutes. Three recycled bottles – an
hour already;
 If we don‘t change the attitude fowards
sorting in the society, barely within a
few years we will have filled
completely all the existing dumps.

16. Lithuania has high industrial
capacity of recycling paper
Taken together the Pabradė,
Klaipėda, Grigiškės and Naujieji
Verkiai, could recycle about 40
thousand tonnes of paper and
cardboard waste a year.
However, in Lithuania only 25%
of all this quantity is collected
and the other part is imported.

17. Thank you!