Estonia: Poor planning process slows landfill construction 03.06.2004
Project background
The North-West Estonian regional waste management centre and landfill
was one of seven big regional landfills planned to replace the old 269 household
and industrial landfills in the country. The ambitious program aimed to fulfil
Estonia's obligations towards implementation of the EU Landfill Directive
99/31/EC. As the safe closure of existing small landfills and establishing a
system of new regional waste management centres and landfills is very costly,
ISPA and Cohesion Fund cofinancing is planned for the construction of all such new
regional landfills. The North-West Estonia Waste Management project was
included in the national environmental ISPA pipeline in 2002.
The program for compliance with the EU Landfill Directive is a typical
example of Estonian policy-making in the past few years. The EU requirement has
been fully adapted into national policies without much additional thinking or
priority setting. NGOs have suggested that waste prevention and minimization be
key priorities for the project in the waste sector, but their views have been
ignored. Thus the national ISPA strategy concentrates on an end-of-pipe
approach, and the construction of a few big regional landfills is the
cornerstone of the waste policy.
Project development phase
The Estonian subsidiary of the Swedish transnational waste management
company Ragn-Sells carried out a study on suitable locations for the North-West
Estonia regional waste management centre in 1998. The company preferred the Ääsmäe
site in the Saue municipality although this site received only the third best
screening score. Detailed studies and EIA procedure were only done for the
Ääsmäe site.
EIA procedure
In January 2002, Ragn-Sells submitted an environmental memorandum to the
Saue municipality where the selected site is situated. Both the EIA report and
the participation process were handled in an extremely poor manner by the EIA
consultancy throughout 2002. Although both the local population and NGOs
identified a long list of unaddressed issues in the first draft of the EIA
report, most of them were not addressed in the final version in November 2002.
It also turned out that while comparing the chosen site with alternative ones,
many deliberate calculation mistakes were present in the report in order to
show the selected site as the best option. As a result, NGOs called for the
cancellation of the main EIA expert's professional licence and a court case was
started by the Estonian Green Movement-FoE, which is currently ongoing in 2004.
It became clear that the Estonian subsidiary of the Swedish Ragn-Sells
company did not take the process very seriously. Thus both the developer and
the EIA consultancy company took the EIA process rather as a necessary 'ticking
of the box' exercise. Regrettably, the EIA process is regarded by the promoter
as an unnecessary burden, not as a tool for increasing the quality of the
project and for increasing support from the local population. Under such
pressure, private companies that are being contracted for carrying out comprehensive
EIAs often participate in a 'race to the bottom' of the selection process. The
Ministry of Environment, which is responsible for approving EIA reports, is
also not strong enough to ensure the lasting quality of the EIAs.
Project promoter and public
participation in the project
The main project developer is Ragn-Sells, and only five percent of
shares in the waste management centre will belong to the municipalities from northwest
Estonia. While the ISPA environment strategy total project costs are estimated
at Euro 7m, the Ragn-Sells company has itself recently calculated the total
costs to be Euro 10m. Some Euro 5m of the ISPA grant was expected by the
company. Ragn-Sells has indicated that in case ISPA cofinancing does not materialize,
it will finance the project with bank loans. Raising funds directly from the
capital market wouldn't be a big problem for Ragn-Sells. Its turnover in 2002
was Euro 8m with profits of Euro 0,6m. Ragn-Sells is the second biggest waste
company in Estonia, with 30 percent of the market share. A doubt remains as to
why the Estonian Government proposed that the project should be financed with
public money from the ISPA program when alternative funding is available. As a
result of public pressure, the Ragn-Sells company abandoned the Ääsmäe site in December
2002 and started a new process for finding a location for the regional waste
management centre.
In addition, according to legislation, only municipalities can be
responsible for the development of the waste management infrastructure. As the
project is regional, all the municipalities of the served area should have been
involved as interested parties. The regional waste management centre and
landfill is also a national project where strong guidance from the Ministry of
Environment is needed. It should have been a task for the government, not for a
private company, to identify and decide the location of the regional landfill.
Thus the very framework of the project has remained unclear, causing many
misunderstandings and frustrations.
Conclusion
- The very need
for replacing more than 200 small landfills by only seven big regional
landfills is still to be proven and explained. As the opening of the first new
regional landfills has shown, the waste depositing price for clients may
immediately rise by almost twice as much. As the transport costs to such new
big regional landfills rises significantly, the probability of illegal waste
dumping into natural sites will also increase. The Ministry of Environment
should take the lead in such a calculation and therefore remain independent
from lobbying by private waste companies.
- The regional
waste management centre/landfill is an object of national importance. Therefore
the preparatory process (site selection, feasibility study, etc) should be
either directly carried out by or at least strictly guided by the Ministry of Environment.
It was a failure that the ministry allowed a private company to direct the
entire process, causing a great deal of misunderstanding. For the continuation
of the project, as well as for similar future cases, the ministry must set a
clear framework and guidelines.
- The development
of waste management infrastructures is a task for local municipalities. It was unfortunate
that the private company Ragn-Sells did all the preparations for the new
regional waste management centre and landfill without fully involving the
municipalities of the region. Fortunately, after the failure with the first
proposed site for regional landfill, a joint company with 11 municipalities was
formed in late 2003. The forming of such a structure should become standard
practice for future similar cases. The framework for future governing should,
however, be set in the early stage of project development. It would be much
preferred if a private company did not have a majority share in such a joint
venture in order to ensure affordable prices for waste handling.
Project facts and figures
- The landfill will serve an area of at least 120,000 people
- 94,000 tons of municipal waste will be collected per year
- The Ääsmäe site is situated 15 kilometres southwest of Tallinn, close to the Via Baltica road
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