Assessment of hazardous household waste generation in Eastern Europe

Abstract

Hazardous household waste (HHW) is a small but the most dangerous fraction of household waste. Different studies estimate their content in household waste from 0.1 to 1%. In Eastern Europe, due to the low efficiency of separate household waste collection, most of the hazardous household waste is mixed with other waste and are mainly disposed in landfills. A thorough analysis of the literature on HHW has been carried out. Statistical data on HHW generation in the Eastern Europe countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine) were compared. A significant part of HHW is not included in special collection systems. The amount of separately collected hazardous waste reported in official statistics does not reflect the real amount of HHW generation. The largest amount of HHW is generated in Poland (over 100000 tons/year). The smallest amounts of HHW (on average) are generated in Slovakia and Ukraine (less than 10000 tons/year). Very likely, there is an underestimation of HHW generation due to low monitoring efficiency in waste management. The lowest values per person are found in Ukraine and Slovakia – respectively 0.25 and 1.7 kg/year, the highest – in Poland and Bulgaria (according to some studies, 7.4 and 9.2 kg/year per person respectively). The largest share of HHW was found in Bulgaria and Poland (respectively 3.2% and 2.7%), well above the EU average. However, most of the results in countries under investigation are close to the average European content (1%). Only Ukraine demonstrates very low HHW share (0.1%).