Are we really sorting correctly? Let’s meet and check!
Such an invitation was distributed to Kaunas residents by the packaging waste management organization “Žaliasis taškas”, which for the third year is initiating an unconventional, engaging social experiment “Container Shake-up”, revealing the waste management habits of Lithuanian residents.
Read more LKL All-Star Five announced
And the content of the sorting containers perfectly reflects those habits.
Properly sorted waste can become raw materials and be reborn in the form of new items, so every resident’s contribution to responsible waste sorting is the first and most important step in the waste recycling process.
On Thursday, at one of the waste sorting container sites on Ašmenos 2nd Street in Kaunas, it was possible to see up close how Kaunas residents are doing with sorting daily plastic waste.
They sort, but is it correct?
Asta Burbaitė, a representative of “Žaliasis taškas”, assured 15min that the organization is pleased with the residents of Lithuania – good results have been achieved during the period when waste sorting is being carried out.
“During surveys, 90 percent of residents state that they always or mostly sort waste. Most claim they know how to sort. However, when asked to specify where they would dispose of specific waste, about 40 percent make mistakes somewhere or other.
Read more Annual retail growth in Lithuania – the highest in the EU
We have become accustomed to sorting containers and using them, but now we need to work on the quality of sorting – start thinking about what we are sorting and into which container we are throwing one or another type of waste,” said A. Burbaitė.
Perhaps the requirements are too complex for Lithuanians to learn?
Answering this question, the representative of “Žaliasis taškas” assured that the sorting requirements in force in Lithuania are very simple, especially compared to some other European Union countries where people have even 8 different containers.
A. Burbaitė emphasized that Lithuanians are not asked to distinguish what is recyclable and what is not. We are not experts in this, and recycling technologies are rapidly improving: what is not yet recyclable today may be reusable in a week or two.
“Simply all packaging must go into sorting containers, not among mixed waste,” the interviewee emphasized the main rule.
Read more Robertas Kaunas: US nuclear weapons in Lithuania could only be deployed during a crisis or war
