Analysis of Changes in Municipal Waste Management at the County Level

The objective of the study was to identify system changes in waste management, including qualitative and quantitative changes in the Łososina Dolna County between 2012 and 2014, taking into account eleven waste streams in the period before and after the introduction of these changes on the level of the county. Differences in the county’s tasks with respect to municipal waste management, which became clear after the changes, were shown along with their impact on the effectiveness of the assigned tasks related to taking over the obligations of waste collection by property owners. On this basis, a 10% growth in the quantity of collected municipal waste was noticed after the changes, as well as a 4% growth in recycled materials, in particular plastic. A drop on the level of 8.5% in the collected mixed municipal waste was considered favourable; however, a drop in the share of glass waste amounting to 5.28% and was considered as negative. In spite of the introduced changes in the municipal waste stream, the share of non-segregated waste of over 67.55% remained significant. The year of changes was characterised by relatively low value of waste accumulation index on the level of 0.26 kg∙ M^-1∙day^-1. The aim of the study was to assess the efficiency of municipal waste management in the Łososina Dolna County in comparison to system changes in waste management introduced at the end of the first and the beginning of the second half of 2013.