You can manage waste management at your summer cottage with very low annual costs if you sort the food waste generated there into a composter and take the packaging waste to the Rinki eco-point on your way home.
Biowaste may only be composted in a specially designed, closed and well-ventilated composter, where access to harmful animals is prevented.
The composter must be thermally insulated if biowaste is placed in the composter during the winter (1.9 September–30.4 April). However, for a summer cottage that is only used during the summer, for example from May to the end of August, a lighter and therefore more affordable model for composting food waste is sufficient. The volume of the composter must be sufficient for the needs. Composting must be reported in writing to the Lahti Regional Waste Management Authority using a form.
When food waste is composted on the property and a composting notification has been made, you can choose the interval for emptying the mixed waste container according to your own needs, up to 16 weeks. When packaging waste is also sorted separately and taken to an eco-point, relatively little mixed waste is generated at the cottage.
The summer cottage's waste management can be suspended for the winter season when the property is unused. In this case, there is no need to pay anything for emptying during the winter season. Regular seasonal suspension of mixed waste emptying is agreed with Salpakiertro's customer service. Emptying will continue the following spring as agreed.
– For many summer cottages, emptying the mixed waste container once a summer at the end of the cottage season with an emptying interval of 16 weeks may be sufficient, says Salpakierto Oy Service Manager Toni Kranttila.
- In Salpakiertro's mixed waste transport, emptying a 240-liter mixed waste container costs 11,61 euros. The price is the same throughout the service area for all residential and leisure properties.
- A good composter suitable for cottage conditions can be purchased for less than 200 euros.
- Waste management at a summer cottage does not necessarily cost very much per year.
- The total cost depends on your own sorting activity and whether you compost or not.
- You can reduce costs even further by setting up a mixed waste collection group with a couple of cottage neighbors.
- The emptying interval should be chosen according to the amount of waste generated and can be flexibly changed as needed.
The aim of waste management is to protect health and the environment. The owner of a permanent or holiday home must arrange waste management for his property in accordance with the Waste Act and the waste management regulations of the area. This means arranging the collection of daily household waste (mixed waste) using property-specific waste containers or shared waste containers (waste collection) and ordering the emptying of the waste containers from a waste transport company.
Bokashi composting or worm composting alone does not meet the composting criteria to extend the interval between emptying the mixed waste container beyond 4 weeks. Biowaste pretreated with the Bokashi method is not yet soil, but requires post-treatment (composting in a composter). Not all biowaste that can be generated at home or at the cottage can be put in a worm composter, so a worm composter alone is not enough to meet the composting criteria required in the composting notification.
For more information, please contact:
Service Manager Toni Kranttila, tel. +358 41 731 7433
Salpakierto Oy is a joint-stock company owned by 9 municipalities, which takes care of municipal waste management service tasks in the area of its owner municipalities in accordance with the Waste Act. Duties include receiving, processing, waste advice, waste management planning and development, and waste transport for waste transport organized by the municipality. The company is part of the Lahti city group.
