Latvijas Zaļais punkts

Office Contacts

Baznicas Street 20/22,

Riga, LV - 1010

Latvia

Tel. +371 67 039 810

Fax. +371 67 039 811

Latvijas Zaļais punkts has recycled 469 39 tons of waste packaging, 6 607 tons of electric and electronic equipment, 11 174 tons of waste harmful to the environment or 200 kg of waste per capita. If not recycled, this waste would occupy a space that equals to 21 „Saules akmens” buildings.
16 000 freight cars or 320 train compositions would be needed to transport the mentioned volume of waste.
If 1 ton of recycled paper saves 14 trees, Latvijas Zaļais punkts has saved 4 205 768 trees or almost 2 trees for every inhabitant of Latvia.
The energy saved by producing 1 ton of glass from recycled raw material equals to the energy needed to power 240 100W light bulbs for 24 hours. 21.5 million of living rooms could be lit for twenty-four hours with the energy saved by Latvijas Zaļais punkts by recycling glass.
If 1 ton of recycled plastic saves 1.8 tons of oil, Latvijas Zaļais punkts has saved 109 838 tons of oil.

333 kg of waste is produced per capita in Latvia (according to the Statistical Office of the European Union Eurostat data on the year 2011).
Every year 700 000 tons of waste are accumulated, half of which originates from households.
~30% or 200 000 tons of the total weight of household waste is packaging that is often carelessly thrown into the garbage bin, but could be sorted and recycled.
Every year 25 000 tons of electric and electronic appliances, 15 000 tons of car tyres, 245 000 tons of oil and oil filters and several tons of power batteries and car batteries are imported into Latvia. These items can also be recycled into new products!

PET is the most widespread material for plastic packaging for beverages
The PET bottles collected in Latvia are processed at the factory PET Baltija in Jelgava. The bottles are processed into PET flakes that are used as raw material for food packaging, disposable tableware, textile and other goods;
PET flakes are also used for textile fibre that is the raw material for making clothes, blankets and carpets. The fibre from 27 bottles is enough to make one jumper
One 0.5 l PET bottle weights 50 grams, 20 000 PET bottles = 1 ton
One PET bottle disintegrates in 80 years

Waste paper or maculature (from macula (Latin) – stain) is damaged paper sheets, waste paper (newspapers, books, cardboard packaging) suitable for recycling
Every inhabitant of Latvia uses ~40 kg of paper annually
Much less paper is used by poorer countries: China uses 27 kg, India: 4 kg per capita a year. The most paper per capita a year is used by the U.S. (335 kg) and Japan (250 kg)
In Latvia paper is processed by Līgatnes papīrfabrika that recycles waste paper into drawing paper, shell paper and shells and paper for wallpaper base

Glass can be recycled indefinitely. Recycled glass has the same qualities as new glass and is suitable for the production of new glass bottles.
The energy used in recycling glass is 32 % less than what is needed to make new glass from a mixture of sand, natron and lime.
Recycling glass reduces air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50% compared to pollution generated by production of new glass.

Electric equipment is an appliance powered by electric current or electromagnetic field, i.e. plugged into contact, running on power batteries or batteries: household appliances, computers, electric toys and instruments, lightning facilities, fluorescent lamps, cell phones, etc.
Electric equipment is labelled with an international symbol – a container with a cross over it, indicating that these goods cannot be disposed of together with household waste.
83% of the processed electric equipment is normally recovered – metals, plastic and glass.
Electric appliances contain a small amount of precious metals that are separated during processing and returned to the precious metals market and recycled wither into jewellery items or new electric appliances.
It takes 20 times more energy to extract aluminium from mines than to recover it from recycled materials
The electric equipment collected in Latvia is processed at EMP Recycling in Lithuania
Recycling goods harmful to the environment
Car batteries are particularly harmful as they contain lead and acids.
In Latvia waste car tyres are burnt in a cement factory thus producing energy. However other more modern ways of recycling are possible e.g. shredded car tyres may be used as interlayer covering in waste deposit areas. Granulated car tyres may be used in building roads, sports and playgrounds.

Batteries and car batteries contain many different substances, such as acids and heavy metals
The cartridges protect people from the hazardous chemicals in batteries. Batteries disposed of in household waste deposit areas or in the environment start rusting; the cartridges open and leak the hazardous chemicals into the soil and water wherefrom it is consumed by plants, animals and humans.
One power battery left in the ground causes pollution within a 1m 2 territory that lasts for nearly half a century
Latvia offers vast possibilities to dispose of batteries – battery collection bins are located in Maxima, Rimi, Drogas, Elvi shops and schools
270 grams of Manganese dioxin, 210 kg of Iron, 160 kg of Zinc and 60 kg of Graphite can be recovered from a ton of power batteries
Batteries collected in Latvia are recycled mainly in Germany

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