Suchergebnisse

The circular economy is a completely new and high-potential economic model with which the European Union seeks to reorient the environment protection and the economy. The main goals of this model are to reduce the amount of generated waste, extend items lifetime, recycle and recover as many resources as possible from obsolete products. Sewage entering sewage treatment plants are no longer considered to be a waste that only needs to be treated and discharged. Nutrients, energy and water can be recovered from sewage and sewage sludge. All European Union countries use different treatment methods in order to manage wastewater and sludge as efficiently and rationally as possible, Lithuania is no exception. In this paper, municipal wastewater treatment plants in agglomerations larger than population equivalent of 2000 were analyzed. To assess the available circularity potential of the country, 11 indicators were selected. The circularity of Lithuanian wastewater treatment plants is analyzed for the first time, therefore it was decided to analyze the period of 2018-2020 in order to compare the changes. Data taken from international databases allowed to compare Lithuania's results with those of other European Union members. All indicators are arranged according to the circular economy model for the water and wastewater sector, which includes prevention, disposal, reuse, recycling, recovery and rethinking. Most of the indicators were chosen to assess the removal of pollutants, as this is the main function performed by wastewater treatment plants. In Lithuanian wastewater treatment plants, the reuse and processing of wastewater is not carried out in any of the treatment plants, due to the high price of such works and low demand. However, due to hotter summers, climate change and more frequent droughts, water recovery from wastewater may become popular in Lithuania as well. Indicators of water consumption productivity and connection to centralized wastewater networks have been selected for reduction and prevention. The ...

The concept of circular economy is one of the priority areas for economic development on which the current environmental policy of the European Union is based. Most existing European wastewater treatment plants were built and operated according to the concept of linear economy where wastewater and sewage sludge were considered as waste only. In fact, there is a wide range of possibilities to use them as a resource to recover materials and energy. Implementation of the concept of circular economy in a relatively small country requires a great deal of additional research and monitoring to assess the available potential. In this paper, data on municipal wastewater in agglomerations larger than population equivalent of 2000 were analyzed, and the situation is presented through indicators covering prevention, removal, reuse, recycling, and recovery. The novelty of this article is that it evaluates the circularity of Lithuanian wastewater treatment plants and their potential for the future. Thus far, the wastewater sector in the country has been found to largely comply with legal obligations, but very few solutions of circularity were found to be implemented.