Sustainable Municipal Waste Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Case Study of Poland

Abstract

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the waste management sector had to face new challenges, e.g., changes in the size and composition of the waste stream, or the presence of potentially infectious waste. This article is based on a case study in Poland. The data analysis showed that the increase in municipal waste mass during the pandemic did not differ from statistics observed in previous years and ranged from 0.3 to 0.5 million tons per year. Lifestyle changes caused a decrease in the amount of waste generated outside households. Social migrations contributed to rapid changes in the mass of waste generated in selected agglomerations by up to 80 kg/capita. In the waste stream, significant amounts of specific groups of waste related to the pandemic (“corona waste”) as well as packaging and food waste were noted. Despite the pandemic, in 2020, Poland recorded an increase in selective waste collection by 6.7 percentage points (pp.) Data on municipal waste management showed an increase in the mass of waste sent for recycling by 0.7 million tons, while the mass of landfilled waste decreased by 0.3 million tons. The observed positive changes in waste management allow the implementation of sustainable development assumptions to a greater extent.

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on waste generation: Focus on plastic, food, and medical wastes in South Korea

“…Past research has frequently emphasized that increased waste generation during COVID-19 will negatively impact the environment, creating health hazards. However, some studies claim that the pandemic has had little impact on MSW waste amount [ 12 , 24 ]. The important contribution of the current study is that it shows that not all wastes at the local level increased during the pandemic.…”

“…Third, medical or hospital waste increased sharply, necessitating improved medical waste management. A recent study by Urbańska et al [ 12 ] found that, at the national level, MSW amounts did not differ much from those of the pre-COVID-19 era. Requena-Sanchez et al [ 13 ] investigated household behaviors in six Latin American countries and found that participants in the study did not report major waste composition changes before or during the pandemic.…”

“…There have been contradictory reports regarding the increase or decrease of plastic, food, and biomedical waste generation during COVID-19 [ 7 , 9 , 11 , 12 ]. Mahyari et al [ 7 ] reviewed 299 articles containing the keywords “COVID-19” and “waste” and showed that the lockdown, staying at home, and remote working increased the amount of residential and household waste.…”