Assessment of changes in the municipal waste accumulation in Poland

Abstract

The aim of the work was to assess the effectiveness of municipal waste management in Poland over the period 2012–2017, considering the accumulation of waste collected selectively and non-selectively per capita and the changes resulting from the implementation of Directives 1999/31/EC and 2008/98/EC in Polish legislation. Within 6 years, noticeable changes in the country initiated by the EU and national legislation indicated an increase in the amount of waste to be recovered. However, the achieved efficiency of limiting the deposited waste at the level of 20% was moderate, despite the existence of infrastructure allowing for increased recovery. The analysis of the efficiency of waste management showed a certain convergence of the increase in the amount of generated waste and gross domestic product (GDP). On the other hand, the increase in accumulated organic waste per capita in all three dimensions of time was the most significant and exceeded 20%.