Transformation towards Circular Economy (CE) in Municipal Waste Management System: Model Solutions for Poland

Abstract

Municipal waste management has been an area of special interest for the European Commission (EC) for many years, especially in the transformation process towards a circular economy (CE), which is a priority of the European Union’s (EU’s) economic policy. This paper presents the overview of the Polish waste management system (WMS) and the CE-related tasks indicated in the Polish CE Roadmap. Despite the fact that Poland is one of the countries that generates the least waste per capita (329 kg in 2018) in the EU (489 kg), it still has problems with adapting the levels of municipal waste recycling to European requirements (34.3% in 2018, EU average 47%), which result from the lack of sufficient infrastructure for waste management and the insufficiently developed public awareness and behaviors. The current paper presents an inventory of the recommended actions, which support transformation towards CE in municipal waste management. These actions have been grouped into six core principles of circularity, indicated in the ReSOLVE framework: Regenerate, Share, Optimize, Loop, Virtualize, and Exchange. In each of presented areas, recommended tasks and actions were identified that should be taken by governments and residents themselves, such as landfill remediation, use of selected municipal waste fractions for economic purposes, sharing products with co-users, waste recovery, remanufacturing products or components, virtual solutions in everyday life to reduce the amount of generated waste, or replacement of household appliances by items with a higher energy class. An implementation of specific actions indicated in the paper could positively influence transformation towards CE in Poland. Because the presented examples of actions are model solutions, they can also be used in other countries and regions.

Reforming MSWM in Sukunan (Yogjakarta, Indonesia): A case-study of applying a zero-waste approach based on circular economy paradigm

“…People, who work part-time as waste collectors, receive an extra monthly income of US$ 30. As a result, more people have become interested in joining the waste industry recently, thus driving a gradual change towards the CE movement ( Smol et al., 2020 ).…”

End-of-Life Options for (Bio)degradable Polymers in the Circular Economy

“…The paper is collected in the blue containers; metals and plastics are collected in the yellow containers; glass go to the green one; and mixed wastes are collected in the black containers. The mixed waste means the waste that cannot be placed in any of the mentioned above containers for segregated waste [97].…”

Thermochemical Treatment of Sewage Sludge Ash (SSA)—Potential and Perspective in Poland

“…In the recent years, the Polish government initiated the necessity of nutrients recovery in official documents related to the circular economy [63], waste management [64], municipal sewage sludge [65] and fertilizers [66]. The recovery of resources from waste substances is the basis of the bioeconomy, which is one of the key areas for implementing CE in Poland indicated in the national roadmap towards CE [67]. The further development of the bioeconomy could contribute to the reduction in pressure on the natural environment, including by reducing the demand for non-renewable resources, such as P. Sustainable and circular nutrient management is recommended in the National Waste Management Plan (NWMP), which is a part of the strategy papers adopted at the European and national levels [68].…”