While some apartment associations may dispute with their waste hauler whether eggshells can be placed with general household waste, in Estonia, there are apartment buildings where such a dispute is impossible. They simply do not have a separate container for biowaste, although it has been mandatory since January 1.

"The reason may lie with the local government or the waste hauler. To our knowledge, there are two municipalities that have not yet organized the removal of biowaste from properties, but they are expected to start a new service from April 1, which is a month away," explained Katrin Koppel, an adviser at the Ministry of Climate.

However, biowaste is not separately sorted in some cities where even the separate sorting of potato and banana peels should be the norm.

"We have mixed municipal waste and biowaste – these are the two things that are currently mandatory in the city. /.../ We have provided a transitional period, but as time goes on, we will monitor and control more. We will definitely do it," said Rakvere Deputy Mayor Neeme-Jaak Paap.

The city does not know how many buildings aren't complying with the law. According to Priit Raamat, the director of the Lääne-Viru Waste Center, 99 percent of Rakvere's buildings are fully compliant with the law when it comes to waste sorting.

"I know that we have this problem with some apartment associations in Rakvere, where they have stated that they are not interested in what the state says, what the law requires, and they will not start collecting. We have discussed this issue with the city of Rakvere, and the supervisory specialists have to deal with it," Raamat said.

For years, there has been talk that if Estonia cannot get its waste management in order, the European Commission may impose a waste fine running into hundreds of thousands of euros. One way to avoid the fine is the proper separate sorting of biowaste.

"Separate collection of biowaste alone is not enough. It is also very important that packaging waste is collected separately. Currently, the majority of mixed municipal waste consists of biowaste and packaging. If we look at a container of mixed municipal waste, one-third of it is biowaste and another third is packaging," Koppel explained.

The experience of the Lääne-Viru Waste Center shows that the people of Rakvere are capable of learning. Initially, there was a lot of glass clinking from the biowaste container, but not anymore.

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