Power of solid municipal waste

Abstract

Land pollution belongs to the most serious environmental problems in Ukraine. The existing system of placing municipal solid waste (MSW) on landfills without proper pre-treatment based on ideas of the 1970s still dominates. Natural landscapes of Ukraine are largely destroyed due to legal and illegal landfills that exceed the space of all National parks and natural reserves. Currently Ukraine is going through massive social and political changes that allow modernization of the country on the basis of the fundamental trends of the sustainable development (SD). Waste management is a subject of particular attention. There is risk to give preference to outwardly attractive economic development, without regard to the unified, holistic models of the SD concept. Landscape ecology is one of the sciences that explore complex issues of interaction between society, economy and environment. It has to be effective in producing appropriate knowledge for landscape-development processes and would be suitable for use in collaborative decision-making on a local level. The purpose of this publication is to highlight opportunities for applied research in the area of MSW management which is the most problematic area in social and environmental measures. This is a subject for international environmental cooperation aimed at ensuring proper quality of Ukrainian landscapes as the country is seeking to be part of Western Europe. This paper presents local feasibility plan aimed at resolving problem of handling municipal waste flows and improving quality of urban landscapes. It is also aimed to show how significant the role of university has been in supporting the Triple Helix model, a driving force of MSW management on the local level.