Composts made of municipal solid waste could be widely used in reclamation of soil-less mechanically transformed grounds. Even though its usefulness, bearing in mind its origin, it is necessary to consider the compost composition in order to avoid posing a threat to environment due to the possible emission of toxic substances which could be present in compost. Especially, organic waste should be monitored, because being present in composts it might be leached and pose a risk to groundwater and plants. In this work the leaching tests were carried out to state the solubility of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water. The both tests results show low solubility of PAHs, max. 10.4% in lysimetrie test and 3.9% in one-step leaching test.

This paper presents the content changes in the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) solubilised in hydrolisates obtained from thermally disintegrated municipal waste biofractions. A series of tests related to biowaste undergoing thermal treatment at the following temperatures: 55, 75, 95, 115, 135, 155 and 175°C were conducted for 0.5, 1 and 2 hours. The highest increase in COD solid fraction solubilisation (238%) was observed for the samples disintegrated at 175°C for 2 hours. The values of the reaction rate coefficient k20 = 0.6 d-1 and temperature coefficient θ = 1.023 were determined. Statistical analysis of the multiple regression (correlation coefficient R = 0.89) showed that the temperature has a greater impact on COD solid fraction solubilisation - determined β = 0.66. The multiple correlation coefficient for the treatment time was β = 0.61.

This publication presents an assessment of the economic efficiency of a hypothetical installation for the gasification of the municipal and industrial waste for the production of syngas used subsequently for the production of energy or chemical products. The first part of the work presents an example of a technological system for the energo-chemical processing of coal mud and municipal waste, based on the gasification process using a fluidized bed reactor. A hypothetical installation consists of two main blocks: a fuel preparation unit and a gasification unit. In the fuel preparation installation, reception operations take place, storage, and then grinding, mixing, drying and transporting fuel to the gasification unit. In the gasification installation, fuel gasification, oxygen production, cooling and purification of raw process gas and ash treatment are carried out. The following key assumptions regarding the gasification process, as well as the capital expenditures and operating costs related to the process, were estimated. Consequently, based on the method of discounted cash flows, the unit cost of generating energy contained in the synthesis gas (cost of energy, COE) was determined and the results were interpreted. In order to obtain an acceptable efficiency of the gasification process for waste fuels for the production of alternative fuel (process gas), it is necessary to supplement the mixture of waste coal and coal mud with the RDF. In this case, the unit cost of fuel measured by the PLN/GJ index is lower than in the case of hard coal and comparable with brown coal. The use of coal mud for the production of process gas in an economically efficient way is possible only in the case of changes in the legal system allowing for charging fees for the utilization of industrial waste – coal mud.

Municipal waste management has been an area of special interest of the European Commission (EC) for many years. In 2018, the EC pointed out issues related to municipal waste management as an important element of the monitoring framework for the transition towards a circular economy (CE), which is currently a priority in the economic policy of the European Union (EU). In the presented monitoring framework, 10 CE indicators were identified, among which issues related to municipal waste appear directly in two areas of the CE – in the field of production and in the field of waste management, and indirectly – un two other areas – secondary raw materials, and competitiveness and innovation. The paper presents changes in the management of municipal waste in Poland in the context of the implementation of the CE assumptions, a discussion of the results of CE indicators in two areas of the CE monitoring framework in Poland (production and waste management), and a comparison of the results against other European countries.

In Poland, tasks related to the implementation of municipal waste management from July 1, 2013 are the responsibility of the municipality, which is obliged to ensure the conditions for the system of selective collection and collection of municipal waste from residents, as well as the construction, maintenance and operation of regional municipal waste treatment installations (RIPOK). The municipality is also committed to the proper management of municipal waste, in accordance with the European waste management hierarchy, whose overriding objective is to prevent waste formation and limiting its amount, then recycling and other forms of disposal, incineration and safe storage. The study analyzed changes in the value of two selected CE indicators, i.e. (1) the municipal waste generation indicator, in the area of production and (2) the municipal waste recycling indicator, in the area of waste management. For this purpose, statistical data of the Central Statistical Office (GUS) and Eurostat were used. Data has been presented since 2014, i.e. from the moment of initiating the need to move to the CE in the EU. In recent years, there has been an increase in the amount of municipal waste generated in Poland as well as in the EU. According to Eurostat, the amount of municipal waste generated per one inhabitant of Poland increased from 272 kg in 2014 to 315 kg in 2017. It should be noted that the average amount of municipal waste generated in Poland in 2017 was one of the lowest in EU, with a European average of 486 kg/person. Poland has achieved lower levels of municipal waste recycling (33.9%) than the European average (46%). The reason for Poland’s worse results in the recycling of municipal waste may be, among others, the lack of sufficiently developed waste processing infrastructure, operating in other countries such as Germany and Denmark, and definitely higher public awareness of the issue of municipal waste in developed countries. Municipal waste management in Poland faces a number of challenges in the implementation of GOZ, primarily in terms of achieving the recycling values imposed by the EC, up to a minimum of 55% by 2025.

Based on laboratory tests of selected properties of secondary waste (ashes and dusts) from municipal waste incineration plants, the possibility of recovering some properties of waste in the process of filling the post-mining voids in the salt mine was assessed. The furnace bottom ash and the waste from the flue gas treatment from one of the national incineration plants were examined. The grain curves of dry waste and the density of the prepared mixtures were characterized. Twelve variants of the compositions of ash-based mixtures with varying proportions of the individual components were considered, taking into account both fresh water and brine. For each variant of the composition, the amount of redundant liquid appeared as well as the time of solidifying of the mixture to a certain strength and the compressibility values obtained. Considering the possibility of transporting mixtures in mines by means of pipelines at relatively long distances, and allowing the filling of large salt chambers to be filled and evenly filled, flow parameters were determined. In addition, the permeability of solidified waste samples was investigated, showing the potential for reducing the strength of the waste mass due to the action of water or brine. The technical feasibility of eliminating redundant liquid in the binding process has been confirmed, which is particularly important in salt mines. Preliminary values for the amount of binder (5%÷10%) to be added to the mixtures to obtain the specified strength properties of the artificially formed mass at Rc = 0.5 MPa. Attention was paid to the important practical aspect resulting from the rapid increase of this type of waste in the comming years in Poland and at the same time vast potential for their use in salt mining, where we have a huge capacity of salt chambers available.

The circular economy (CE) has been a European Union (EU) priority since 2014, when first official document on the CE was published. Currently, the EU is on the road to the transformation from a linear economy model to the CE model. In 2019, a new strategy was announced – the European Green Deal, the main goal of which is to mobilize the industrial sector for the CE implementation. The CE assumes that the generated waste should be treated as a secondary raw material. The paper presents an analysis of the possibility of using selected groups of waste for the production of fertilizers. Moreover, an identification of strengths and weaknesses, as well as market opportunities and threats related to the use of selected groups of waste as a valuable raw material for the production of fertilizers was conducted. The scope of the work includes characteristics of municipal waste (household waste, food waste, green waste, municipal sewage sludge, digestate), industrial waste (sewage sludge, ashes from biomass combustion, digestate) and agricultural waste (animal waste, plant waste), and a SWO T (strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. The fertilizer use from waste is determined by the content of nutrients (phosphorus – P, nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, calcium ) and the presence of heavy metals unfavorable for plants (zinc, lead, mercury). Due to the possibility of contamination, including heavy metals, before introducing waste into the soil, it should be subjected to a detailed chemical analysis and treatment. The use of waste for the production of fertilizers allows for the reduction of the EU’s dependence on the import of nutrients from outside Europe, and is in line with the CE.

The objective of the project was to find out whether the composting process of municipal waste may be used as a low temperature heat source. It was determined that during high temperature phase of the process on average 930.5 kJ of heat is produced per kg of compost. The designed and made laboratory model was used for carrying out three stages of testing, boiling down to running the composting process with parallel heat recuperation from the process. Basing on the tests, the parameters having affecting the heat recuperation process effectiveness were determined, viz.: optimum initial temperature of cooling water should be approximately 30°C, the reduction of flow rate of the cooling water has advantageous impact on the increase of process efficiency, whereas the safe temperature lower limit for compost cooling should be higher than 52°C (which safeguards compost sanitary purity). It was also observed that in parallel to compost age heat recuperation process efficiency is declining.

This paper presents the results of modeling and analysis of hybrid generation system (HSW). The system contains municipal waste gasification installation, photovoltaic (PV) system and wind farm. The system cooperates with the power system to provide electrical energy to the communal consumer. The consumer is characterized by a maximum power demand equal to 10 MW and an annual energy demand of 42.351 GWh. Generation with renewable sources was modelled using meteorological data. Moreover, in order to cover the demand with the level of generation, gas storage was used. Next, the three-stage gasification model is presented. It was validated, using the literature data, and its efficiency and gas composition have been calculated and are presented. Furthermore, energetic and economic analysis have been conducted. Installed power usage factor and efficiency of energy sources were calculated. Gross and net energy generation of hybrid generation systems have been computed and are presented. In this analysis, energy consumption by gas compressing was included. The analyzed HSW covered 54.5% of the demand. Most of this (30.2%) was covered by the gasification system. However, the system was characterized by a low net efficiency equal to 16.7%. Diagrams of power generation in each source and storage fill chart are presented. In the economic part of the analysis, results of calculations of net present value and payback period are published in order to examine the profitability of the system.
The cost of electricity was 490–1050 PLN/MWh. The results show that municipal waste gasification can be used as a part of HSW to adjust the generation with the demand. Moreover, it can be economically advantageous. However, it is characterized by high CO ₂ emission and low efficiency of the waste processing system.

The new legislative provisions, regulating the trade in solid fuels in our country, draw attention to the need to develop and improve methods and methods of managing hard coal sludge. The aim of the work was to show whether filtration parameters (mainly the permeability coefficient) of hard coal sludge are sufficient for construction of insulating layers in landfills at the stage of their closing and what is the demand for material in the case of such a procedure. The analysis was carried out for landfills for municipal waste in the Opolskie, Śląskie and Małopolskie provinces. For hard coal sludge, the permeability coefficient values are in the range of 10–8–10–11 m/s, with the average value of 3.16 × 10–9 m/s. It can be concluded that this material generally meets the criteria of tightness for horizontal and often vertical flows. When compaction, increasing load or mixing with fly ash from hard coal combustion and clays, the achieved permeability coefficient often lowers its values. Based on the analysis, it can be assumed that hard coal sludge can be used to build mineral insulating barriers. At the end of 2016, 50 municipal landfills were open in the Opolskie, Śląskie and Małopolskie Provinces. Only 36 of them have obtained the status of a regional installation, close to 1/3 of the municipal landfill are within the Major Groundwater Basin (MGB) range. The remaining storage sites will be designated for closure. Assuming the necessity to close all currently active municipal waste landfills, the demand for hard coal sludge amounts to a total of 1,779,000 m3 which, given the assumptions, gives a mass of 2,704,080 Mg. The total amount of hard coal sludge production is very high in Poland. Only two basic mining groups annually produce a total of about 1,500,000 Mg of coal sludge. The construction of insulating layers in landfills of inert, hazardous and non-hazardous and inert wastes is an interesting solution. Such an application is prospective, but it will not solve the problem related to the production and management of this waste material as a whole. It is important to look for further solutions.

In this study, the environmental impacts of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) treatment and its conversion in anaerobic digestion to glycerol tertiary butyl ether (GTBE) were assessed. The production process is a part of the innovative project of a municipal waste treatment plant. The BioRen project is funded by the EU’s research and innovation program H2020. A consortium has been set up to implement the project and to undertake specific activities to achieve the expected results. The project develops the production of GTBE which is a promising fuel additive for both diesel and gasoline. It improves engine performance and reduces harmful exhaust emissions. At the same time, the project focuses on using non-recyclable residual organic waste to produce this ether additive.

The aim of this paper is the evaluation through Life Cycle Assessment of the environmental impact GTBE production in comparison with a production of other fuels. To quantify the environmental impacts of GTBE production, the ILCD 2011 Midpoint+ v.1.10 method was considered. The study models the production of GTBE, including the sorting and separation of municipal solid waste (MSW), pre-treatment of organic content, anaerobic fermentation, distillation, catalytic dehydration of isobutanol to isobutene, etherification of GTBE with isobutene and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC).

The results indicate that unit processes: sorting and hydrothermal carbonization mostly affect the environment. Moreover, GTBE production resulted in higher environmental impact than the production of conventional fuels.

Bioleaching research considers both the bio- and anthroposphere in the search for novel ways to recover resources and elements, which is important to the concept of sustainable development. Since the efficient, cost-effective and simple recovery of resources is of increasing importance in the circular economy model, the bioleaching of metals is a method currently gaining interest. The process is also of importance considering the need for the neutralization of waste materials/resources that allow for their safe storage and use. In this study, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans bacteria, which is commonly found and widely utilized in the bioleaching process due to its high tolerance to heavy metals, was used in a twenty-eight-day experiment. The manner in which bacteria inhabit incineration residues was observed using fluorescence optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The concentration of elements in incineration residues and in the post-reaction solutions was measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and the efficiency of element recovery was calculated based on the results. Municipal waste incineration bottom ash and sewage sludge incineration fly ash were considered in the experiment. The extraction rates were far from satisfactory, with the average 20 and 50% for bottom ash and sewage sludge ash, respectively. The obtained results were consistent with microscopic observations where the relative number of bacteria increased only slightly over time in the sewage-sludge fly ash and was barely observed in the bottom ash of municipal- -waste incineration.

Waste management faces more and more serious challenges, especially given the growing amount of municipal waste generated in Poland and the resulting environmental impact. One of the significant environmental aspects of waste management is the emission of odorants and odors. Taking into account the odor problem, the majority of municipal waste generated is being collected as mixed waste (62% of municipal waste), which by weight contains approximately 32.7% of kitchen and garden waste. These organic fractions are mainly responsible for the emission of odor and odorants. Those substances can be emitted at every stage: from the waste collection at residential waste bins, through transport, waste storage, and transfer stations, up to various respective treatment facilities, i.e., mechanical-biological waste treatment plants, landfills, or waste incineration plants. The gathered data during the study showed that it is necessary to increase the share of different waste management methods, i.e., recycling, composting, or fermentation processes rather than landfilling to meet all necessary regulations and to fulfill provisions of the waste hierarchy. One of the actions indicated in the legal solutions is expansion, retrofitting, and construction of new sorting plants, anaerobic digestion plants, composting plants, and increase in thermal treatment capacity. Variety of different processes that could emit odors and a diversity of different odor-generating substances released from particular waste management steps should be taken into consideration when building new facilities which are suitable for waste treatment. The overall aim of the work was to characterize and summarize available knowledge about waste management system in Poland and to gather information about odor-generating substances emitted from different waste management steps and facilities, which could be a potential source of information for preparing legal solutions to reduce possible odor nuisance form broadly understood waste management.

The impact of mechanical pre-treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) on its biogas production potential was examined. Mechanical separation allowed the following size-fractions to be obtained: fine fraction - mineral fraction of municipal solid waste (MFMSW) (cf> < 20 mm), middle fraction - organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) (20 mm< cf>< 80 mm), and coarse fraction (cf>> 80 mm). The most suitable fraction for biological treatment was OFMSW, containing about 76 % of high rate biodegradable organic fraction (HRBOF). The rate constant of degradation for organic compounds in OFMSW was 0.23 d·1• It was shown that total gas production (TGP) during 10 years may achieve 550 m3/Mg OFMSW. Mechanical pre-treatment may allow an 45 % decrease of the amount of landfilled MSW resulting in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of up to 70 m3/Mg over 10 years of landfilling (in contrast to MSW landfilling - 213 m3/Mg). The experimental results revealed that gas production potential should be determined on the basis of HRBOF content and measurements of the biogas production.

Biogas plants processing municipal waste are very important investments from the point of view of waste management and also the sustainable development of urban infrastructures. They may also have a potentially negative impact on the environment in the form of odour emission. Olfactometry is the main method for odour impact assessment. Field olfactometry allows for performing a wide range of tests, the results of which are practically instantaneous. The purpose of this work is to provide a tool for assessing the odour impacts of municipal management facilities, including biogas plants processing municipal waste and evaluating the correctness of processes carried out in these plants, namely the method of field olfactometry. In order to compare obtained olfactometric results with the concentration of chemical compounds, chromatographic tests were also carried out using the Photovac Voyager portable chromatograph (hydrogen sulphide – H2S and dimethyl sulphide – (CH3)2S. The results of the odour concentration tests are in line with the results of odorant concentration tests and indicate that cod is strongly related to the concentration of hydrogen sulphide. Thanks to this method, it is possible to find a relationship between odour nuisance, technological processes used in the plant and the type of treated waste.

Currently, we are facing the ever-increasing phenomenon of bacteria being resistant to antibiotics. It is the consequence of excessive and incorrect use of drugs. The phenomenon is a global problem affecting bacteria both in their hospital population and in the natural environment. Municipal waste is an environment conducive to the development of microorganisms, therefore it contains various groups of bacteria, including drug-resistant staphylococci. The aim of the study was to identify species of bacteria, determine their antibiotic resistance, and assess the occurrence of genes responsible for methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus isolated from mixed municipal waste. Strains were isolated by Koch’s serial dilution method with the use of microbiological media. Species were identified using the MALDI TOF-MS technique, whereas the drug resistance profile was determined by disk diffusion and molecular PCR methods. 250 isolates of S. aureus were collected. The highest resistance found was to cefoxitin, erythromycin and tetracycline. Among the bacteria collected, resistance to 1, 2, 3 or 4 antibiotics at the same time was the most common, with a maximum of 10. Additionally, 45 (18%) MDR (multidrug-resistant) isolates were detected. Methicillin resistance was found by the disk diffusion test in 60 (24%) strains, while the mecA gene was detected in as many as 180 (72%) isolates.

The manuscript presents the condition of circular economy in Poland in diversified approach: subjective (waste streams, energy), sectoral (construction, wastewater treatment, coal energy), related to the resources (phosphorous and anthropogenic minerals) and considering proper energy management (almost zero energy buildings). The achievements reached in different sectors as well as the requirements towards implementation of CE are presented. The advancement of recycling technologies does not deviate from the global level, in terms of areas specific to Poland. Limiting the exploitation of natural resources and usage of new materials as well as producing more durable products are of CE concern. Also energy and heat recovery in buildings and technological processes (e.g. during wastewater treatment), ways of utilization of combustion by-products and water decarbonization waste are described. The implementation of CE in Poland needs not only research and technical activities, but also the modification of technological processes, the right policy, overcoming crosssectoral barriers, developing legal regulations and support schemes for CE.