ESTONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 2009

The deposition of municipal waste in landfills has
decreased significantly in the period 1999–2007 (figure
9.6). The primary category of waste that ends up
in landfills is partially-sorted mixed municipal waste.
In 2003–2007, mixed municipal waste was sorted by
Tallinna Jäätmete Sorteerimise Tehas OÜ, and in 2008,
Narva Jäätmekäitluskeskus OÜ also entered this field.
As the separate collection of municipal waste has greatly
expanded and become more convenient for inhabitants,
the exhaustive sorting in specific central facilities is no
longer as salient and necessary.
The recovery of municipal waste has increased; most
of it is comprised by land treatment and organic recycling
(composting, first and foremost). A large part of
street-cleaning waste and municipal soil and stone waste
is handled as land treatment. Garden and park waste,
biodegradable kitchen and canteen waste, municipal
wood waste and some paper and other cellulose-based
waste are sent to organic recycling. Recycling of materials
involves recovery of domestic metal and plastic waste,
while primarily wood waste is recovered as fuel. Activities
undertaken in preparation for recovery of municipal waste
(collection for treatment including sorting mixed waste)
is also considered to be recovery (figure 9.7). Part of the
collected and sorted municipal waste is exported (paper
and cardboard, metals, WEEE) and is recovered outside of
Estonia. Packaging waste is also separated from municipal
waste in the sorting process, and recovery of packaging is
accounted for separately under packaging waste.
One of the biggest problems is illegal dumping – municipal
waste is left lying in roadside ditches, forests near
urban areas, riverbanks and lakeshores and the most
unexpected places where people go. All are illegal activities
which sometimes can be quite harmful to the environment.
To prevent this situation, the objective was set in the
national waste management plan (2002–2008) to provide
the population household waste transport services.
In order to provide waste transport service to as many
people as possible, local governments with at least 1500
people (there are 143 of them) were obliged, starting in
2005 to organize waste transport service on their administrative
territory. Organized waste transport means that
the local government announces a call for tenders to
select a waste transporter in its administrative area. All
companies in the field of waste transport can participate
in the tender. Thus waste transport organized by local
governments helps prevent waste from being introduced
into the environment, and on the other hand it enables a
more favourable price of waste transport service for those
that generate waste. The Waste Act also stipulates the
precise extent and conditions of the principle of waste
transport organized by local governments.
As long as waste transport has not been organized or
is not yet operational, it is a free market. This means that
people select their own service provider to empty their
dumpsters. Inhabitants of an organized waste transport
area no longer have the option of selecting their own
waste transport company: the local government has made
that decision for them. Until the beginning of organized
transport, the free market system applies, open to all
waste transport companies.
The percentage of the population supplied with organized
waste transport service should be 94%. Implementing
waste transport has become a true stumbling block
for local governments; and the percentage is only 55%
as of early 2009.
More active organizing of tenders began only in late
2007, a time at which many local governments drafted
basic joint groundwork acts and formed joint transport
areas (Central Estonian Waste Management Centre,
Eastern Estonian Waste Management Centre). By the
end of 2009, 21 local governments with an obligation to
announce waste transport tenders had not yet done so
(map 9.1).
800
700
600
landfill
recovery
export
unspecified handling
thousands of tonnes per year
500
400
300
200
100
0
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Figure 9.6. Municipal waste handling in 1999–2007. Data: EEIC.
150