Management of Toxic Packaging Waste Related to Environmental Protection in Iasi and Neamt Counties

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to estimate and compare the toxic packaging waste generation in two urban areas of Iasi (A) and Piatra Neamt (B) counties, in a close relationship with the management of removal and processing. Piatra Neamt was chosen because it is known to have a developed infrastructure for selective sorting and collection of municipal solid waste since 2001, implemented using European funds. On the other part, the center of Iasi city was chosen because the selective sorting of municipal solid waste was really implemented only in this area. There exist no significant differences between the generated total waste amounts in A and B studied areas. The same time, no significant differences between the generated packaging waste average quantities in A and B areas were found. The clear result of this study is that the generated packaging waste represents 32.62% as average when compared to generated total waste in area A and 37.15% in area B. When comparing the fractions of generated total waste in the two areas of study the results are really surprisingly. Since it is well known that Piatra Neamt developed the first integrated system of selective collection of household waste, totally functional starting with 2001. When we are comparing the fractions of generated total waste, the results are not significantly different in the two areas. For sure, there are higher rates for selective collection and sorting of paper/cardboard, plastics, glass and organic waste in area B, but not really significant. Such results could be explained solely by the existence of a similar degree of education and commitment regarding the environmental protection in both studied areas. Moreover, we tried to have an estimation of the management effort of local authorities to remove the generated total waste or its selective fractions from the two studied areas. This was a very difficult challenge. For the moment, our conclusions are that for both cities the management efforts are almost the same, despite the selective sorting and collection of some fractions of generated total waste in area B (Piatra Neamt). The simple conclusion could be that the management efforts of removal are lower in Iasi city starting from the efficiency of the processes.