Do we have to waste the waste? (Poland)

摘要

In 2017 in Poland 126 million tonnes of waste were produced. Municipal waste constitutes 9.5%, whilst the remaining waste is of industrial origin. From all waste, only 49% was recovered and 42% was landfilled. For the remaining part other methods were used. Moreover, 56.5% of industrial waste is produced by the mining industry. The presented numbers show that although the best practices of waste management, including circular economy rules, have been applied for many years, there is still a huge amount of waste for which landfilling is applied. Therefore, the proposal of introducing proper rules of waste management encouraged by a new legal mechanism may turn out to be the solution to the problem. Furthermore, the crucial issue is the possibility of providing the effective process of recovery of waste by storing it in open-pit excavations as well as through re-exploitation of anthropogenic deposits. In the article, the authors attempted to answer the question whether we have to waste the waste. Moreover, the authors indicate how the quality and quantity structure of produced mining waste looks like. The environmental law is analysed to identify the elements of the whole process of waste management which should be changed.