Abstract
The aim of the work is to assess current solid waste management (SWM) and wastewater treatment (WWT) in the county of Sibiu, Romania. Sibiu is a region where industrialization and tourism are spreading constantly, while pollution monitoring and the introduction of circular economy (CE) principles are still lacking. The environmental issues are mostly due to the absence of reliable sanitation systems, in particular for what concerns sewage sludge treatment. Moreover, Organic fraction from selective collection of municipal solid waste is still missing, since it is disposed of directly to landfill, increasing environmental pollution and contributing considerably to global warming. As a result, SWM and WWT should be improved at the same time, as sludge requires specific handlings in order to be safety disposed. The objective of the study is to investigate the introduction of affordable technological facilities able to treat sludge and the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, recovering, at least, the energy required for the working phase of the treatment plants. Anaerobic digestion resulted viable, but the organic fraction full stream collection seems to be the only way to have a significant energy recovery. From the financial point of view, the feasibility of this co-treatment option could count on specific opportunities that Romania has in the frame of the European Union context.
Highlights
The declared aim of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy is to work towards improvements of the life quality, both for the present and the future [1]
Of great importance is the analysis of the nitrogen pollutants in the wastewater output from the station, because the addition of a thermal drying increases the load of nitrogen to the system because of the condensation of moist air as an output of the dryer
From the drinking water side, there are no critical environmental issues; the study shows a total separation of the sector from the purification of waste water due to the type of sources used
Summary
The declared aim of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy is to work towards improvements of the life quality, both for the present and the future [1]. The relentless deterioration of natural resources, which affect many emerging countries due to economic improvements boosted by national policies [3], and the need of their conservation requires a good waste and wastewater management, an increasing recovery of wastes and their reduction [4,5,6]. In this sense, according to European regulations, the waste hierarchy of prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery for other purposes such as energy and disposal should be applied [7]. The general framework waste regime in Romania stated on the Legea nr. 211/2011 on waste regime [13]
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