Selected Factors Affecting the Amount of Municipal Waste at Different Administrative Levels in Poland

ABSTRACT

The amount of generated municipal waste depends not only on the population but also on consumption patterns and economic welfare. The aim of this paper was to present the structure of generated waste over the years in the European Union, Poland, in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, and in Rzeszow. It has been assumed that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the political action of the government, and the higher standard of living of the society are the factors influencing the increase in the amount of waste generated by households and waste segregation. The paper analyses the waste management system using the official data collected and published by Statistics Poland – the Local Data Bank (LBD) and Eurostat. The amount of municipal waste and waste collected selectively from households was probably affected to the greatest extent by local regulations. According to the data presented, a sharp increase in the amount of municipal waste, including bulk waste and bio-waste, was observed in 2013 and 2014, which may be related to the amendment in 2013 applicable in Poland of the Act on maintaining order and cleanliness in communes. Unfortunately in the Eurostat database, no accurate data on selectively collected municipal waste is available, and in LBD this data is available for different time spans depending on the administrative level. This makes it difficult to draw unequivocal conclusions on the amount of generated waste and forecast changes. © 2023, Journal of Ecological Engineering. All Rights Reserved.