Waste from the agricultural sector in the European Union countries in the context of the bioeconomy development

Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify and assess the spatial diversity of generating of animal and vegetal waste by entities from the agricultural sector in the EU countries along with the determination of the importance of this type of waste in total waste generated in individual countries. Statistical data used in the study were obtained from EUROSTAT. The research period was 2016, while the research area covered 25 EU countries. The data was subjected to quantitative analysis using descriptive and parametric statistics. It was found that animal and vegetal waste has the largest share in the structure of waste from the agricultural sector (accounting for 81.6% of all waste in the agricultural sector in the EU in 2016). It has been shown that generating of vegetal and animal waste in agricultural sector in the EU countries is characterized by spatial diversity. Most of this waste type was generated in Spain and the Netherlands. The dominant position of Spain resulted from significant share of this country in the EU volume of animal faeces, urine and manure generation. High position of the Netherlands was associated with a large share of vegetal waste. France, Germany, Slovakia and Sweden ranked next. Nearly 80% of all analyzed groups of waste came from these countries, which indicates a high degree of spatial concentration of the studied phenomenon. In this context, it can be stated that these countries are predestined to base their development on the concept of the bioeconomy. It is a challenge for the research and development sphere regarding development of innovative ways of managing agricultural vegetal and animal waste.

Sustainable and circular agro-environmental practices: A review of the management of agricultural waste biomass in Spain and the Czech Republic

“…It is possible that in the case of the Czech Republic, some characteristics of cereal residues limit their use for other types of utilization ( Bernas et al, 2020 ). In addition, in 2017, the Czech Republic was one of the countries with the highest number of agricultural biogas plants per million inhabitants ( Komor and Bujanowicz-Haraś, 2020 ). This could be one of the reasons for the prioritization of bioenergy as a bio-based product.…”