Visvaldas Varžinskas

Sustainable consumption and production as a system: experience in Lithuania

Activities in the area of sustainable consumption and production in Lithuania started in 1993 when the first cleaner production projects were implemented. The capacity in the area of cleaner production enabled further development and implementation of preventive environmental initiatives. Cleaner production activities have been followed by establishment of a system for development, financing and implementation of preventive innovations, implementation of environmental management systems (including development of new approaches for implementation, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises), product-oriented measures such as life cycle assessment, eco-design, and sustainability reporting. A very important role in building the basic capacity level and implementing the sustainable consumption and production initiatives in Lithuania has been played by the Institute of Environmental Engineering (APINI) at Kaunas University of Technology. This article presents an overview of activities in the area of sustainable consumption and production in Lithuania since 1992 as well as results/lessons learnt from these activities. To overcome barriers and to ensure progress in the area of sustainable consumption and production, a model of a system of sustainable consumption and production has been developed. The objective of the system is to minimise energy and material use as well as waste output, and to eliminate the “rebound” effect.

Decision-making support system based on LCA for aseptic packaging recycling

In Europe post-consumer beverage carton packages are treated in three ways: dumped in a landfill, incinerated for energy recovery, and recycled. In recent years new technologies for beverage carton recycling have been developed and tested. At the same time in Europe the collection of second-hand raw materials is becoming more efficient. In order to facilitate and justify the decision-making process, different possibilities of poly-aluminium handling were analysed. For this reason, the objective of this study was to compare carbon footprints in the whole life cycle of selected technologies and to provide decision-making with data for beverage carton recycling. The paper is based on some of the results of the project ‘Sustainable Production through Innovations in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SPIN)’. The SPIN project is providing small- and medium-sized enterprises with a whole set of instruments that put entrepreneurs in a position to innovate their production processes and products leading to improved business and public benefits.