Assessment of Waste Generation and Efficiency of Their Use in Economic Activity

Abstract

Abstract. Introduction. The problem of waste accumulation and efficient use in Ukraine is particularly large and significant. This is due to the dominance of resource-intensive and waste-intensive technologies in the country's economy, as well as the low degree of their processing. At the same time, the high level of resource use of the national economy, as well as energy and raw materials orientation in combination with the outdated technological base continue to determine the high rates of generation and accumulation of various types of waste. The unresolved problems lead to a further deepening of the environmental crisis and, accordingly, to the aggravation of the socio-economic situation in society. Therefore, there is a need to regulate the use of natural resources in general and effective waste management using foreign best practices. Purpose. The purpose of this article is to study the formation and use of waste in Ukraine and the efficiency of their use. The specific objectives of the study include evaluation of the waste management pyramid that is the base to find appropriate way to deal with waste overall the country; and evaluation of the linkage between utilization of wastes from environmental protection expenditures by regions in Ukraine. Results. Waste disposal is an urgent problem for Ukraine, as waste generation is quite high, in the average it equalled to 462,373.5 thousand tons in 2020, but there are not enough plants for proper processing, in particular, the dynamics over the past 5 years shows their growth in 2020 compared to 2015 on 48%. It was found that the largest share in the structure of waste was occupied by mining (85.7%) and manufacturing (11.5%). The lowest amount of waste generation is observed in such areas as: construction; water supply, sewerage and waste management. Getting results of research are shown that the leading positions in the share of recycled waste in the total amount of generated waste by region in 2020 were Khmelnytsky (81.7%), Zaporizhia (63%), (55.6%), Cherkasy (56.4%), Chernivtsi (39.5%) ) and Ivano-Frankivsk (30.4%). At the same time problems with utilization were observed in Kyiv city (4.1%), Zakarpattia (0.2%), Odesa (0.4%), Mykolaiv (3.5%), Kyiv (0.8%) regions. In general in Ukraine this indices in 2020 was low and amounted approximately to 22%. In Ukraine landfills play crucial role for waste disposal. However, in new circular economy concept is expected to transform the current waste management system (WMS) pyramid into a sustainable WMS pyramid in which the landfill will have a minimal amount of waste after reducing, recycling or composting energy recovery options. In the article was evaluated the efficiency of the waste management by regions in Ukraine, where was estimated the dependence of utilization of wastes from environmental protection expenditures. Data for the regression was taken by regions from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine for 2020. Obtained results confirmed the dependence and showed that the increase of environmental protection expenditures on 1 mln. UAH leads to increase of waste utilization on 5.23 thousand tones. Conclusions. In perspective Ukraine needs to optimize its waste management policy and introduce modern technologies for their recycle to reduce harmful influence on environment. By 2025, the country can provide an environmentally friendly solid waste management system and recycle up to 40% of waste. Achieving waste reduction in Ukraine by 30-40% requires investments amounting to approximately 13 billion euros. This, in turn, would reduce the demand for landfill expansion by 30% and generate additional revenues from the sale of secondary materials and energy to 300 million euros