Current Status of Municipal Waste Management in Poland and Development Directions for the Coming Years

Abstract

The development of civilization, population growth, and increasing global wealth result in an increasing demand for various products, which consequently leads to an increase in waste generation. This problem, despite attempts to introduce a closed-loop economy (GOZ), is growing year by year. So far, the most common way of managing waste has been landfilling. Such waste management has a negative impact on the environment through the emission of greenhouse gases, and pollution of surface and groundwater, soil, and air. To avoid these negative phenomena, part of the waste is incinerated. Thermal treatment is used for those wastes that cannot be recycled and, due to their characteristics, can become a source of energy. The article shows the breakdown of waste according to current legislation, the groups, subgroups, and types of waste, the available recovery and disposal processes, and emissions from some thermal waste treatment facilities. The graphs show the generation of municipal waste in the EU and Poland from 2004 to 2020, which shows the direction of Polish waste management. The analyses show that proper waste management allows significant benefits to be derived from waste management, both environmental and economic.