Archives of Environmental Protection

Abstract

Waste management is mainly aimed to protect human health and, secondly, to protect the environment. Humanity has been producing waste for centuries, however along with the rapid civilization development, the amount of generated waste has drastically risen. A lot of legal regulations have been introduced to reduce waste generation as well as a rational management of already generated waste, e.g. separate collection of waste and recycling, thermal utilization with energy recovery, and natural use, thus avoiding the inadvisable storing. The rise in the living costs (increased fuel and energy prices) and, consequently, impoverishment of society and low ecological awareness caused the common usage of high-calorie waste as fuel in household furnaces, thus causing environmental pollution with uncontrolled emission of hazardous substances and producing dangerous furnace waste (ash/slag) (Zając A. 2016). Such waste utilization is carried out in uncontrolled conditions, as opposed to utilizing in professional energy, cement or waste incineration plants. Incineration of waste in specially adapted equipment, endowed with exhaust aftertreatment devices, reduces dioxin emissions by over 700 times more than during the combustion of waste in a domestic furnaces.In Poland, it is forbidden to incinerate waste in equipment which is not adapted to it. In accordance with the Waste Act and the Code of Off enses, it is prohibited to burn waste in furnaces, domestic boiler rooms as well as in the open air. These issues are regulated by the following documents:  Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2000 on the incineration of waste  Waste Management Act 14 of December 2012: Article 155. Thermal treatment of waste shall be carried out only in waste co-incineration plants or in waste co-incineration plants, subject to Article 31.Article 191. Who, contrary to the provisions of Article 155, thermally transforms waste outside the waste incineration plant or waste co-incineration plant shall be subject to the arrest or a fi ne.The combustion process in a domestic environment takes place at low temperatures, which results in high emission of toxic gases into the environment, including: carbon and sulfur oxides, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fl uoride and hydrogen cyanide, as well as metals such as cadmium, thallium, mercury and others. Waste such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), from which liners, bottles, cable casing, foils, shoes, clothing, furniture, plywood or chipboards are made, is burnt in domestic furnaces in an uncontrolled way. It is also extremely unhealthy to incinerate PET plastics, rubber waste or varnished materials. As a result of domestic thermal utilization of this group of products, carcinogenic dioxins are introduced to the atmosphere, whose toxic eff ects on health are manifested only after several dozen years, for example in the form of cancer.Waste management issues are regulated by the Waste Management Act of