Riga Residents Drown in Trash – Where to Complain 0 9

And while the yellow bins (for plastic, paper, and cardboard) are somewhat acceptable, just an unaesthetic sight, the overflowing containers for general waste, where people throw away, among other things, food waste — this brings odors, insects that have already awakened from hibernation, rats, and crows that constantly scatter this trash. Neighbors see this, are outraged, but nothing happens. Who in an apartment building is actually responsible for waste removal?! Reader of bb.lv."

Answers Martiņš Vilemnsons, project coordinator of the external communication department of the Riga City Council:
– According to the Mandatory Regulations of the Riga City Council "On the Management of Household Waste on the Administrative Territory of the State City of Riga", the responsibility for maintaining the order of separate waste collection points and the sites for placing containers, as well as submitting requests to the waste management operator for the removal of leaves and bulky waste lies with the property manager (in this case, the apartment building).

The manager is required to conclude a contract for the disposal of waste from the apartment residential building and ensure that the number of waste containers, their volume, and the removal schedule correspond to actual needs.

The Regulations also stipulate that the building manager is responsible for informing the residents of the building:

• about the current schedules for household waste removal,
• about the conditions and possibilities for creating underground or closed above-ground sites for placing containers for household waste (if they are not yet equipped),
• about the possibilities for the removal of construction waste and/or bulky household waste, the procedure for their removal, and ways to order the corresponding services.

Information on preventing the accumulation of household waste, on the correct sorting of household waste, as well as on the advantages of separate waste collection should be provided to the residents of the apartment building at least once a quarter: in utility bills, on the building's information boards, and/or through electronic communication channels.

P.S. Since the reader was unable to inform us during the conversation who manages her building and which company provides waste removal services, we found this out ourselves. And sent a journalistic inquiry with a strong request to resolve the issue of overflowing containers as soon as possible.

Unsanitary conditions are generally unacceptable, and especially with the onset of warm weather.