Lithuania sets tobacco-filter waste shares for cleanup funding

Producers and importers placing tobacco products with filters, and filters sold for use with tobacco products, on the Lithuanian market fund the collection and treatment of that waste when it lands in public collection systems or as litterE TAR, together with municipal litter-picking, transport and public education on the issue. The money is paid into the account of the body authorised by the Minister of the Environment, under the minister's procedure and by the minister's deadlines, and that body calculates the amounts and distributes them to municipalities. Compensation for services linked to municipal activity cannot exceed the expenditure necessary to provide those services cost-effectively, and the calculation and distribution follow the transparency principle.

The funding for each past calendar year is split among the liable producers and importers in two proportions: according to the weight of their products' waste found in public collection systems and as litter, and according to each company's market shareE TAR. Market share is calculated by the authorised body, under the procedure set by the Government-authorised institution, from the quantity each producer or importer declared as placed on the Lithuanian market in the reporting period.

Because nobody weighs every cigarette butt, the weight is derived from reference numbersE TAR. Thirty-six per cent of all such products placed on the Lithuanian market is treated as consumed in public places administered by a municipalityE TAR: public beaches, water bodies and their shores, forests, parks, squares, grounds, stops, roadsides and similar places. Of that public-place quantity, seventy-nine per cent is treated as thrown into public collection systems, meaning it becomes waste in public collectionE TAR, and twenty-one per cent is treated as improperly discarded, meaning it becomes litterE TAR. The two shares exhaust the public-place quantity.

Those three figures apply twice: for determining the waste and litter weight used for the funding in 2023-2025, and again for 2026-2028E TAR. The minister sets the reference numbers for three calendar years at a timeE TAR, no later than the end of the running three-year periodE TAR; the waste and litter weight is then calculated using those numbers together with data from studies carried out under the minister's procedure, and the cost of setting the numbers is itself part of the funded expenditure.

Municipalities administer the public places where the consumption share arises and receive the distributed funds; producers and importers of filter tobacco products and standalone filters bear the cost in proportion to their waste weight and market shareE TAR. Legal basis is the Minister of the Environment Order No. D1-192E TAR of 26 October 2026E TAR Dėl referencinių skaičių nustatymo, adopted under Article 34(32)(7) of the Lietuvos Respublikos atliekų tvarkymo įstatymasE TAR, with the funding duties in Article 34(32)(1)(5), (4)-(6).