Abstract
The paper examines the environmental threats associated with the burning of household waste in open piles across rural communities with a focus on Neamt County (Romania) as a case study of uncontrolled waste disposal practice. This option derived from the lack of efficient municipal waste collection schemes, and on the other hand, it is a traditional disposal route for agricultural wastes besides open dumping on the surroundings. This study estimates the potential amounts of household waste uncollected by formal waste management services to be burnt by rural communities related to regional waste management features and how such bad practice interacts with geographical conditions. The paper performs a quantitative analysis of waste indicators and makes estimations on consequent environmental impact focusing on inventorying air pollutants. The spatial analysis provides an appropriate cartographic representation of the analyzed phenomenon. The conclusions converge towards two main ideas: 1) open burning of mixed household waste could be a significant air pollution source at the local scale, and 2) better rural waste management practices are needed to be implemented in the study area to mitigate environmental and public health threats.
Highlights
Rural areas are prone to uncontrolled waste disposal practices across the globe due to the lack of sound waste collection schemes [1]
This paper examines one of the main routes for household waste uncollected via backyard burning practices in Neamt county, part of North-East development region
In mountain and subcarpathian areas waste dumping on watercourses compete with backyard burning option as uncontrolled waste disposal practices
Summary
Rural areas are prone to uncontrolled waste disposal practices across the globe due to the lack of sound waste collection schemes [1]. The amounts of waste generated by rural communities are frequently managed at the household level through open burning practices or open dumping on surroundings [2]. In Eastern Europe, rural communities struggle to provide reliable waste management services under the EU legislative framework. Rural population coverage for such services is emerging in later years in Romania, but open burning and illegal dumping of waste still prevail across the villages. 19th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2019. This paper examines one of the main routes for household waste uncollected via backyard burning practices in Neamt county, part of North-East development region
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