Municipal Solid Waste Management

After the collapse of communism the countries of Central and Eastern Europe has experienced enormous economical changes. The attitudes towards the environment has changed in the region. Economic development in many transitional countries has lead to the destruction of some good practices developed in the socialist system of waste management/recycling. At the same time the amount of waste enormously increased due to the package industry development and massive imports from the West. This report on waste streams in Ukraine and Hungary will provide analysis of waste composition and volume as well as options used for reuse or recycle in both cases.

Methodology

During the audit domestic waste was recorded for a period of one week at three locations in Ukraine and Hungary. These locations include Central European University dormitory (Hungary), Kyiv Shevchenko University dormitory (Ukraine) and a flat in Cherkasy (Ukraine). In each case the waste data was obtained for the different number of people: one in Hungary, four in Kyiv Shevchenko University dormitory, and a family of three people in Cherkasy. The final data, which is presented in this paper, is an average amount of waste per one person.

The waste was basically recorded each time anything was thrown into the waste bin. However, in the CEU dormitory some garbage is being collected through the dormitory canteen - this part of waste was recorded as well. However, the whole waste stream connected to food preparation at the CEU facilities cannot be recorded. This fact explains big discrepancy between the amount of waste in Hungary and in Ukraine.

The methodology of classification was developed according to the records of waste stream (see Annex 1). The categories include plastics - high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polystyrene (PS). In cases when the package or product made of plastic was not labeled, it was recorded to the category 'other plastic'. The rest of categories include paper, glass, organic (food waste) and non-recyclable materials (products made of different materials in such way that reuse/recycle is impossible, e.g. teabags). To estimate the total mass and volume of the recorded waste, the common assumptions were developed for the entire working group (see Table 1).

NameVolumeMass

Plastic

Plastic water bottle (HDPE)1.5 l70 g

Plastic bag (LDPE)0.1 l30 g

Canteen jam pack (PS+metal)0.015 l3 g

Canteen butter pack (PS+metal)0.01 l2 g

Yogurt pack (PS)0.125 l20 g

Paper

A napkin (paper)0.02 l2 g

Washing powder pack (paper)0.5 l100 g

A4 sheet (paper)0.05 l4 g

Glass

Wine bottle0.7 l400 g

Other (non-recyclable)

‘Tetra pak’ 0.5 l100 g

Tea bag0.01 l5 g

Table 1. Assumptions.