Directions of management of municipal sewage sludge in the European Union

The purpose of this article is to compare sludge management trends between selected EU-15 and EU-12 countries on the basis of statistical data to determine trends and formulate conclusions for countries adopted after 2004. The analysis relied on the analysis of changes in legal regulations, international literature and the analysis of statistical data from EUROSTAT. Unfortunately, incomplete statistical data limited the number of analyzed countries, however, it was possible to draw conclusions. Sludge management is an extremely complex issue, affects not only water and sewage management and waste management, but also concerns the issues of agriculture (fertilizers) and energy. A very important part of the issues is technological progress, and therefore research and development. Improper management of sewage sludge will in the long run lead to increasing costs of wastewater treatment, while modern technologies allow for the recovery of both energy and raw materials. The law in principle ruled out the possibility of storage and limited the agricultural use of unprocessed sewage sludge, thus one should choose the optimal development directions of the sector. Possible areas of action are burning with recovery of energy and raw materials from ashes or organic recycling, i.e. composting with recovery of energy and heat and using the resulting fertilizer.