A composting plant for food and green waste is planned to be set up in the village of Jurgeliškės in Šiauliai district by the end of 2028. The project will cost almost €4.1 million. 

The plant will process sorted waste collected from the districts of Akmenė, Joniškis, Kelme, Pakruojis, Radviliškis, Šiauliai and Šiauliai. It will be able to process around 25,000 tonnes of food waste per year, of which 7,000 tonnes would be recycled. 

With the new facility in place, food and green waste will no longer be included in mixed municipal waste, reducing the amount of food and green waste going to incineration plants and landfill.  

„About 22 percent of food and kitchen waste is still found in mixed waste“, the waste management centre of Šiauliai region told BNS. 

Food waste from apartment dwellers in Šiauliai city and district, Radviliškis, Joniškis and Kelme districts is already being collected in separate containers, he said.– last year, about 1,000 tonnes of waste were collected in the region.

Food waste is already being treated in a waste recycling plant completed last year – it is being converted into raw material for biomethane production. This facility can only process separately collected food waste and packaging with kitchen waste residues, but cannot process green waste. 

Currently only green waste can be disposed of in the green waste collection containers, but with the construction of the new facility, residents will be able to dispose of both animal and vegetable food waste and green waste.

In the last year, 974.5 tonnes of food and 16.85 thousand tonnes of green waste were collected from the region's residents.