Environment
A vehicle contains parts such as fuel, air, and oil filters; shock absorbers; oils; coolants; brake fluid; lead-acid batteries; brake pads; electronic equipment; and more. All resulting parts, materials, and hazardous and non-hazardous waste must be sorted, reused, and recycled to help prevent waste, and must not be disposed of with household rubbish.
Currently, a key issue for manufacturers is limiting the use of harmful substances in car production. It is important to ensure that materials used in manufacturing vehicles do not pose a risk to the environment or human health. This applies not only to car production and operation, but also to later recycling processes. Vehicle manufacturers aim to use as many materials as possible from recycled secondary raw materials, including bioplastics and more.
Lead batteries must be collected and recycled so that all materials used to make them can be reused. For this reason, you should not try to dismantle them yourself. Lead-acid batteries contain large amounts of hazardous chemicals. If old batteries are not handled properly, or if the battery casing is damaged, they can release dangerous substances into the environment as they break down. These harmful materials can contaminate groundwater, poison soil and plants, and negatively affect human health. Exposure to heavy metals and other hazardous substances may cause skin infections, cancer, respiratory diseases, as well as circulatory, immune, nervous system, and other health issues.
Battery waste must be collected separately: batteries and battery waste should be placed in specially designated containers, barrels, boxes, or other marked bins. It is prohibited—and regulated by law—to dispose of hazardous waste together with unsorted household waste. Used batteries are collected, sorted, and recycled through designated collection and processing systems. You can bring your used batteries to a waste handler or take them to a specially marked collection point. Waste is collected from users free of charge. Always place battery waste into clearly marked designated containers. You can also drop off battery waste at your local bulky waste collection sites or hazardous waste points. Information about collection sites and recycling options is available through your local environmental office, at battery retailers, on the Ministry of Environment website, or through other informational resources.
This symbol, found on batteries and battery packs, means that these items must be collected separately and not disposed of with unsorted household waste.
Proper sorting, collection, handling, and recycling of battery waste help protect the environment and conserve natural resources. According to European Union regulations, lead-containing batteries must be collected and recycled in a way that allows all parts—lead, plastic, sulfuric acid, and other chemicals—to be reused whenever possible.
When waste batteries are handed over to approved handlers, most of the materials are returned to the market as new products. Any waste that cannot be recycled is disposed of in an environmentally safe manner. By properly collecting and recycling used batteries, we save raw materials and help keep our environment clean for future generations.
You can also drop off your used lead-acid batteries free of charge at our facility at: Pakalnės g. 5B, Domeikava, Kaunas district.
For more information:
Improper waste management harms both public health and the environment. Changing values in society are leading to increased consumption, generating ever-growing amounts of waste. When this waste is not managed properly, it pollutes the air, soil, and water, causing irreversible damage to nature and human health. That's why responsible waste management is now one of the most important and meaningful activities we can undertake.
If packaging waste isn’t sorted and handled properly, in just a few decades our country could become one big landfill.
It’s important to sort waste at the point where it is created, and recycle or reuse it wherever possible, to help protect the environment and conserve natural resources.
For example:
Used tyres can stay in the environment for hundreds of years before breaking down, making them a long-term pollutant. Old tyres pose risks not just to the environment, but to our health, too. Discarded tyres left in woodlands, ditches, or along riverbanks not only look unsightly, but can also spark fires. Tyres are made from petroleum products, and when burned, they release hazardous substances that can cause respiratory and heart diseases.
The main material in tyres is rubber, which doesn’t change much even after the tyre’s life is over. For this reason, it’s important to recycle tyres by separating the rubber from other components (metal, textiles) and using the materials to manufacture new products. Recycled rubber pellets can be used for asphalt, playground surfaces, parking barriers, and more.
Worn-out tyres can also be used as an energy source. In Lithuania, for instance, AB “Akmenės cementas” uses tyres for such purposes. They are burned in special ovens equipped with filters that neutralize harmful emissions. Ash produced during burning goes into cement production.
It is illegal to dispose of used tyres with regular household or industrial waste. Burning tyres is also forbidden.
You can return old tyres free of charge to places that sell tyres when you’re buying new ones, as long as you’re returning the same quantity and size as you are purchasing. Used tyres can also be taken to municipal bulky waste collection sites. The full list is available here: https://am.lrv.lt
Residents may return up to 4 car tyres per year to these sites free of charge. Be sure to check what types of waste are accepted at your chosen site, as not all locations take hazardous household waste. You can visit the site during its opening hours. The local council or municipal representatives can provide detailed information about bulky waste sites, addresses, hours, and what’s accepted. The addresses are listed on their and the Ministry of Environment's websites.
Used oil, fuel, and air filters are especially dangerous for the environment. Mishandling them puts both nature and health at risk.
Car filters contain metal, oil, leftover fuel, and filter materials. Oil can contain nearly a third of the elements in the periodic table, including copper, zinc, and heavy metals. There are many hazardous compounds in these oils, which can contaminate large ground areas and seep deep, threatening both surface water and groundwater supplies. Some people illegally burn these wastes, causing even more pollution and emitting harmful and carcinogenic chemicals that lead to breathing illnesses. These wastes must not be mixed with household or non-household waste.
Most hazardous substances are released during metal production, not as much from the metal itself decomposing. Metal can be recycled indefinitely—its properties do not change, and recycling metal uses much less energy than processing raw ore.
People can deliver used filters and other waste to an authorized waste handler.
Our company works with waste management firms that are certified to handle oil, fuel, and air filters, as well as both hazardous and non-hazardous waste.
You can leave these wastes at automotive service and repair shops if you use their services for your vehicle maintenance.
Used filters can also be dropped off at bulky waste collection sites managed by local municipalities. Find full lists here: https://am.lrv.lt
When recycling oil and fuel filters, the recovered materials are metal and oil; air filters yield plastic and filtering material. The oil is either cleaned for reuse or used as fuel. Recycled oil can serve its original purpose or be refined and sold as new engine oil. Recycling used oil saves valuable energy: refining used oil needs only a third of the energy needed to make new oil from crude. All other recovered metals and plastics from filters are also reused in new products.
Producing new metal requires a lot of energy and releases large amounts of greenhouse gases, which directly cause climate change and global warming. Recycling used filter metals conserves resources, reduces pollution, and saves energy.
Used oil—including any mineral, semi-synthetic, or synthetic oil no longer suitable for lubrication or industrial use—poses major environmental risks. Just one litre of oil can pollute a million litres of water and cover about one hectare of water's surface! Oil mixed with water forms an emulsion that suffocates aquatic life and, when seeping into the soil, prevents plants and micro-organisms from getting oxygen.
Heavy metals in waste oil can damage the nervous system and kidneys, and cause cancers. These toxins build up in the body over time, so health problems may only appear later.
Never dispose of used oil with household or other waste. Disposal of hazardous waste with unsorted household or other waste is illegal and strictly regulated.
It is also forbidden to burn waste oil in stoves or heaters, since such burning produces carcinogenic substances that can cause cancers, birth defects, fertility issues, bronchitis, asthma, and other respiratory diseases.
Oil may only be incinerated by licensed facilities in approved furnaces, fitted with regularly changed filters that are managed as hazardous waste.
Pouring oil into surface or groundwater, drainage, sewage systems, or onto the ground pollutes wide areas and threatens water sources, rivers, and even drinking water.
Give used oil only to companies authorized to collect and recycle such waste.
Recycled oil can be turned into high-quality base oil. It can also be refined anew and used as engine oil. This process conserves energy, since re-refining oil takes just a third of the energy used to make it from crude.
Residents and companies can hand over their used oil to a licensed waste handler.
Our company works only with certified waste management companies for used oil and all other hazardous or non-hazardous waste.
Used oil can also be left at automotive service and repair shops if you use their services for your car.
End-of-life car batteries contain many hazardous substances. According to European Union rules, batteries containing lead and accumulators must be collected and recycled so most components—lead, plastic, sulphuric acid, antimony, etc.—can be reused.
If not handled correctly, batteries release toxic substances like heavy metals and electrolytes into the environment as they break down or if their cases are damaged. Lead in batteries is extremely hazardous: it can enter the body via inhaled vapour, dust, or through the digestive system. Lead poisoning accumulates slowly, causing nervous system disorders, insomnia, headaches, and irritability. Sulphuric acid, also used in batteries, is hazardous for human health, causing eye and respiratory tract inflammation, damage to mucous membranes, and dental problems.
Pouring sulphuric acid on the ground destroys vegetation instantly. The acid can contaminate groundwater, poison crops, and enter the food chain, harming people and animals.
Batteries should never be disposed of with household or other waste. Hazardous waste mixed with regular waste is illegal and regulated.
Never dismantle batteries yourself. Always deliver scrap batteries intact to avoid spreading hazardous materials.
Lead acid batteries must be collected in separate, specially marked containers or boxes for safe transport.
Specialist companies disassemble batteries, recycling the lead and plastic into new batteries, and treating the acid so it can be reused in fertilizers.
Waste batteries may be handed over to licensed waste handlers, or you can bring them to us—we ensure they are delivered to certified recyclers. Our company partners only with registered hazardous and non-hazardous waste handlers.
Batteries and accumulators can also be taken free of charge to municipal bulky waste collection points. A full list is here: https://am.lrv.lt
Before delivering waste, check the site accepts your items—different sites can accept different types of waste, including hazardous household waste. You may deliver waste during normal opening hours. Municipal representatives and council teams provide full details of locations, addresses, and opening times—these are also listed on local government and Ministry of Environment websites.
You can also leave car batteries with car service and repair providers if you use their services.
Used shock absorbers are hazardous waste because they contain oil, which is full of heavy metals and other toxic compounds. Dumped car parts contaminate large areas of soil and can seep down to groundwater, rivers, and even drinking water supplies. Should the oil or gas leak out, the absorber becomes unsealed and no longer works. Shock absorbers are made of metal, oil, and rubber.
Recycling uses much less energy than is needed to produce new products. Worn shock absorbers must not be mixed with other household or non-household waste.
Recycling shock absorbers yields metal, oil, and rubber. Used oil can be cleaned, turned into high-quality base oil, or recycled into cleaner heating fuel. Re-refining used oil saves energy, using only a third of the energy needed to turn crude into oil.
Recycling the metal in shock absorbers also conserves a lot of energy. Making metal from raw materials creates huge greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. Recycling uses less energy and causes less environmental harm.
Residents may give used shock absorbers to licensed waste handlers.
You can also leave shock absorbers with car service providers if you use them for your maintenance needs. A map of responsible workshops is available at www.esuatsakingas.lt.
Used shock absorbers can also be taken to municipal bulky waste collection sites. See the full list here: www.am.lt. Always confirm beforehand what waste is accepted at a particular site, as accepted materials differ. Municipal representatives can give details about the sites—including addresses, hours, and what they accept. This information is also published on council and Ministry of Environment websites.
Packaging waste is an alternative raw material source. Proper sorting and recycling of packaging benefit industry and save natural resources. It’s very important to separate packaging from general waste, sort and reuse it to ensure less pollution and help conserve valuable resources.
Lithuanian law requires packaging and product waste to be sorted and not disposed of with general household waste. Only then can more waste be recycled and pollution reduced. Proper sorting of product and packaging waste means better results for everyone.
You can dispose of packaging waste by placing sorted items in public recycling bins (yellow—for plastic and metal, green—glass, blue—paper), at buy-back points, or return reusable packaging for deposits at shops.
Meaning of packaging symbols
To help with sorting, most packaging now carries standardized labels. A triangle of three arrows pointing clockwise indicates the packaging is recyclable.
Numbers inside the triangle show the material type: 1–19 means plastic, 20–39 paper and cardboard, 40–49 metal, 50–59 wood, 60–69 textiles, and 70–79 glass.
This information is prepared following the Lithuanian Minister of Environment's June 28, 2012 Order No. D1-554 on requirements for public education and information in waste management under the producer responsibility principle.