On May 21st of this year, a webinar titled “Home Composting Register in Municipalities” took place, gathering over 60 participants from various Latvian municipalities, waste management companies, regional waste management centers, and non-governmental organizations. The aim of the webinar was to share experiences and practical solutions regarding the creation and implementation of home composting registers at the local level.
During the webinar, both theoretical aspects of implementing a home composting register and specific examples from Latvian regions and municipalities were presented. Rūta Bendere, Head of the Latvian Waste Management Association, delivered a presentation titled “Establishing a Home Composting Register in Municipalities: Theory and Practice”. She discussed pilot projects carried out in Liepāja and Preiļi within the framework of the LIFE Waste to Resources IP, which involved residents in the separate collection of food waste and the composting of food, garden, and park waste. R. Bendere shared the results of the pilot projects as well as a municipal survey conducted to gather data on the practices of creating home composting registers.
Since R. Bendere’s presentation emphasized the importance of including single-family and two-family homes in the register as a priority, several questions arose from webinar participants: whether multi-apartment buildings can also register in the home composting register; whether homes that have agreements with agricultural companies to collect and compost biological waste using equipment provided by the company can be registered; and whether households using biological waste as a resource for their small gardens or using alternative composting technologies such as individual bio-waste reactors can be included. Based on responses from waste management representatives, such cases should also be registered in the home composting register but will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
The webinar continued with a presentation by Mārtiņš Vīgants, Head of the Vidzeme Regional Waste Management Center, who explained the experience of establishing a home composting register in the Vidzeme waste management region. M. Vīgants emphasized that the service is still new, and while the company has the capability to monitor which households are not participating in separate waste collection or home composting, it currently does not enforce control or penalties, instead allowing households time to adapt to the new system.
This was followed by a presentation from Simona Mirka, representing the Jelgava State City Municipality, and Andrejs Eihvalds from the company “Jelgavas komunālie pakalpojumi”, discussing the implementation of the home composting register in Jelgava and demonstrating the successful collaboration between the municipality and the company.
Participants expressed differing views on whether the home composting register should be maintained by a national authority, municipalities, regional waste management centers, or waste management companies. However, there was consensus that any home composting register should be based on unified principles to ensure data comparability and usability for calculating recycling targets.
Kristīne Uškenika, Director of the Sigulda municipal company SIA “Jumis”, shared insights into the creation and operation of the public composting site “Kreiļi” in Sigulda. Webinar participants were interested in whether the compost produced at the site is available to residents and whether the company has the necessary equipment for compost preparation. K. Uškenika responded that the compost is currently not available to residents, although there is significant interest. She also noted that the necessary composting equipment is available to SIA “Jumis” as an outsourced service.
At the conclusion of the webinar, Zane Kopštāle, an activist from Komposts.lv, provided an in-depth overview of the basics of composting at the household level.
Overall, the event offered valuable insights, ideas, and questions for municipalities that are planning to launch or further develop a home composting register in their territories.
The next webinar in the “Dialogue with Science” series is scheduled for September 2025.
The seminar presentations in Latvian are available here:
LIFE projekta "Atkritumi kā resursi Latvijā" aktualitātes
Mājkompostēšanas reģistra izveide pašvaldībās - teorija un prakse
Mājkompostēšanas reģistra piemērs Vidzemes atkritumuapsaimniekošanas reģiona teritorijā
Mājkompostēšanas reģistra ieviešana Jelgavas valstspilsētas pašvaldībā
Publiskais kompostēšanas laukums “Kreiļi”
Komposta veidošanas pamatimājsaimniecībā
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