Waste management in Baltic States: Comparative assessment

Abstract

In EU waste management policy the waste avoidance and reuse are under the highest priority and the recycling takes the third place while recovery and disposal are the least favourable options. The EU member states have to implement strict waste management policies based on this approach however though all countries have to prepare and implement waste management plants, their have achieved different results in waste management. The article aims to analyse the selected waste management indicators covering all stages of various wastes management ranging from prevention to recycling etc. available at Eurostat database and to present empirical comparative case study on waste management for Baltic. The different Multi Criteria Decision Making models were applied for comparing and ranking Baltic States based on their achievements in waste management in 2020. The case study revealed that the best performing country in waste management among Baltic States was Lithuania having the best indicators of waste generation per GDP and recycling rates of municipal waste and plastic packaging waste. Estonia was lowest ranked country according waste management due to very high overall total generated waste per capita and packaging and plastic waste per capita etc.