{"id":132999,"date":"2026-07-21T22:41:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/132999\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T22:41:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:41:58","slug":"benkunskas-warns-vilnius-is-facing-a-new-catastrophe-the-situation-is-becoming-extremely-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/132999\/","title":{"rendered":"Benkunskas warns: Vilnius is facing a new catastrophe \u2013 the situation is becoming extremely dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the garbage crisis continues after last year’s fire at the Vilnius waste sorting plant, the mayor of the capital Valdas Benkunskas<\/a> warns that the city is again facing a major fire threat due to the actions of the operator Energesman.<\/p>\n

“The biggest threat and fear is that due to the deliberate, I would say, actions of one UAB (“Energesman” – BNS), a flare has been created in the territory of the city of Vilnius, which, God forbid, could ignite and we will have a catastrophic situation,” Valdas Benkunskas told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“The biggest danger to Vilnius now is the threat of fire. (\u2026) We see piles of waste rising, mountains growing, we see from thermal imaging cameras that the temperature in the area is rising, but the company is doing nothing,” he added.<\/p>\n

According to the mayor, the operator’s failure to cope with his functions has led to a crisis in the entire Vilnius region, and currently the most important thing is to proactively monitor the situation in order to prevent a fire at the factory, and then address the issue of waste management.<\/p>\n

“(Energesman \u2013 BNS) is now holding all the cities hostage after the contract was terminated, they maliciously do not even vacate the territory, waste continues to be transported and accepted into the territory, the site itself now looks tragic, the amount of (garbage \u2013 BNS) exceeds the permissible norms five times,” he said. V. Benkunskas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the mayor, the first indications of the plant’s stalled operations were noticed in March, the operator was urged to address the problem, but the situation only worsened: “Waste management has practically come to a complete halt, debts to all subcontractors are enormous.”<\/p>\n

After Vilnius County Waste Management Center (VAATC) announced last week that it was terminating its contract with Energesman, V. Benkunskas says that it will take time before the termination of the contract takes effect and the territory is taken over from the operator.<\/p>\n

“I can deny all speculation that waste management will be fifty times more expensive here, this is the desperation and agony of this private individual who is now spreading these conspiracy theories. Waste management will not be expensive for residents, but the extent of the losses largely depends on how quickly we take this property into our own hands and can manage what has been cultivated in that territory,” he explained.<\/p>\n

According to V. Benkunskas, the decision to terminate the contract was made after reaching a “critical point”.<\/p>\n

“We have asked the court to issue, one might say, an executive order to take over the territory more quickly so that we can start organizing. We are waiting for the court’s decision, but in principle we have to follow the legal path,” he said.<\/p>\n

BNS wrote that VAATC filed a lawsuit with the Vilnius Regional Court and requested that Energesman be ordered to transfer the operation of the Vilnius region’s mixed waste sorting plant.<\/p>\n

Agreements have been reached with private waste managers for more than half of the region’s waste<\/p>\n

V. Benkunskas says that an agreement has already been reached in principle with other private waste managers regarding the temporary management of some regional garbage.<\/p>\n

“Currently, the diversion of flows is being coordinated, because my first goal is to stop transporting waste to this area altogether. It is still being brought in, loaded, and that mountain continues to accumulate. So we have to basically stop transporting waste, because waste is no longer being managed there,” said the mayor.<\/p>\n

“For 65 percent of the total regional flow, we basically already have agreements with other private waste managers that they will take that flow and temporarily process it. The remaining 35 percent is still a question of where to put it if we do not dispose of this waste at the Kazoki\u0161k\u0117s landfill,” he added.<\/p>\n

VAATC head Marius \u0160vaikauskas told BNS that an agreement has been reached with the companies Ekonovus and Ecoservice regarding temporary waste sorting.<\/p>\n

“We have been looking for help all the time while our operator (“Energesman” – BNS) is completely inactive. Starting today (Wednesday – BNS), part of the waste is going to one waste manager (“Ecoservice” – BNS) – this is 35 percent. for sorting the entire flow. Also, starting Friday or Monday, another partner (“Ekonovus” – BNS) will be involved – 30 percent. (of waste – BNS) will go out for sorting,” the head of VAATC told BNS.<\/p>\n

“These are the (waste – BNS) carriers operating in Vilnius, who are the only ones in the Vilnius region that have the opportunity to help in this situation. These are Ekonovus and Ecoservice,” he said.<\/p>\n

According to the head of VAATC, a contract has already been signed with Ecoservice, and one with Ekonovus will be signed in the near future.<\/p>\n

He could not say the value of the contracts, but mentioned that their duration is up to six months. The head of VAATC emphasized that the exact duration will depend on how quickly VAATC takes over the operation of the plant.<\/p>\n

“Everything will depend on how quickly we take over (the factory – BNS), how quickly we can clean up the area, how much of the flow will then be partially handled by these two managers and at the same time our additional capacity will be released,” said M. \u0160vaikauskas.<\/p>\n

The head of VAATC said that both companies are engaged in waste removal, but have the ability to sort waste: “They are waste transporters in the Vilnius region. But they have adapted infrastructure to help temporarily overcome the crisis caused by Energesman.”<\/p>\n

At that time, the mayor of the capital emphasized that the agreement with other operators operating in Vilnius is a temporary solution to the problem, and after VAATC takes over the factory territory, the accumulated amount of waste will begin to be processed there – its sorting and incineration at the Vilnius cogeneration power plant will be resumed.<\/p>\n

As BNS wrote, the waste management centers of the Utena, Kaunas, and Marijampol\u0117 regions closest to Vilnius would agree to sort waste from Vilnius and seven other surrounding municipalities, but the question arises as to who will pay for it.<\/p>\n

V. Benkunskas says that after waste is transported to other regions for sorting, it should be brought back later: “Solutions, even temporary ones, must be logical and ultimately manageable in terms of cost.”<\/p>\n

BNS reported that the head of the National Crisis Management Center, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, stated on Wednesday that the Vilnius region is leaning towards declaring a state-level emergency due to the unsorted municipal waste crisis. According to him, it could be declared as early as next week.<\/p>\n

Residents of the Vilnius region throw away 220 thousand tons of mixed municipal waste per year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the garbage crisis continues after last year’s fire at the Vilnius waste sorting plant, the mayor of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[93],"tags":[171,5547,10674,9706,170],"class_list":["post-132999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vilnius","tag-lithuania","tag-naujiena","tag-siuksles","tag-valdas-benkunskas","tag-vilnius"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116960385103795100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}