CHANGES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MUNICIPAL WASTE IN POLAND - TOWARDS THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Abstract

Increasing demand for consumer goods causes more and more waste. In line with the principle of sustainable development, waste policy should aim at ensuring that waste produced has the least impact on the natural environment. One solution is to use a circular economy. According to this concept waste production should be minimized as much as possible. Therefore, action should be taken to enable all raw materials to "stay" in economy for as long as possible. Main goal of the article is defined as an assess of the changes in the generation and management of municipal waste before and after the amendment of the Clean House Act. As the research tasks were adopted to present changes in waste management legal regulations: • to indicate waste generation level in Poland, • the origin of the waste, • to analyses and evaluate changes in the field of waste recovery, recycling and reuse.
In this context there is an important question, how could we decrease production and consumption in order to generate lower quantity of waste or recycle them appropriately and use again. After the entry into force of the law on the maintenance of cleanliness and order in municipalities, there was a decrease in a production of mixed waste. Between 2012-2016 there was an increase in the amount of municipal waste picked up selectively. The amount of mixed waste recycled in 2016 has increased fourfold in comparison to 2012, and the amount of waste recycled has increased by 42 times.

 Keywords: landfilling, municipal waste, recycling

Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2017.072