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Waste management
Background
 Waste management issues have been a priority for co-operation and experience exchange among the environmental authorities of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since the beginning of the 1990s. Through the activities of the Baltic Environmental Forum, regular information exchange and on-going learning has been fostered regarding the development of efficient waste management systems.The BEF has followed the work of the Ministries of Environment of the three Baltic States, which started from zero: building up a legislative framework for waste handling, creating institutions and defining responsibilities, developing waste management strategies, setting targets for single waste streams and, at the same time, defining measures for the continuous improvement of the system. Due to involvement of many actors as well as the complexity of waste streams, the waste sector is highly complicated. Besides, by opening local markets to western consumer goods, totally new waste streams have been created in the Baltic States. For those no management experience existed (e.g., packaging, end-of-life vehicles or electronic scrap). Furthermore, a new waste management system had to be organised, and large-scale investments were required to upgrade or build environmentally sound landfills. Therefore, the special attention of the BEF activities are paid to management of the specific waste streams, involvement of public, interested stakeholders in awareness raising activities and involvement of NGOs for better waste management in the region. Since a few years, we have expanded the focus of our activities with regard to waste at accession candidates and countries outside of the EU. BEF provides project management and organizes transfer of German and Baltic expertise into the target countries in projects that focus on waste management. | ContactPhilipp Engewald Tel.: +49 40 5330 7075 Fax.: +49 40 5330 7084
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Projects
Waste management in Macedonia Like in many other member states of the European Union, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, local authorities are responsible for the organization of waste management. In the frame of the approximation process for EU membership as well as the National Waste Management Strategy it is foreseen to establish regional waste management bodies to support local authorities to jointly manage the organizational tasks more efficiently and effectively. Inter-municipal cooperation is still new for local administrations in Macedonia, where an intermediate regional administrative level does not exist and there are many open questions particularly regarding experiences with public-private partnership models and establishing an environmentally sound waste management system through this form of partnership. Supporting Macedonia in establishing a regional waste management system is the overall objective of the project. During two missions to the country, German and Latvian experts will discuss cost-efficient technological and organizational options, recycling, recovery and avoidance of waste and thus deepen the information exchange between experts from the three countries. more>> | 12/2009 - 08/2010 |
Capacity building on EU Environmental legislation for local and regional self-government in Croatia and Macedonia Having in mind experiences from the previous accession rounds to the European Union which brought a lot of changes for the work of regional and local self-government, this project intends to train experts in the target countries Croatia and Macedonia. The goal is to enable them to bring the understanding of the EU as such and its legal principles and the legislation to the staff of local and regional self-government in their own language. more>> | 02/2007 - 07/2009 |
