The aim of this paper is to analyse changes in the physicochemical elements in groundwater in the vicinity of a small municipal solid waste landfill site located within the territory of the European Union on the basis of 7-year hydrochemical research. Samples of groundwater and leachate near the examined landfill were collected four times a year during two periods, between 2008 and 2012 during the use of the landfill and between 2013 and 2014 at the stage of its closure. The research results were analysed on the basis of general physicochemical properties: pH; total organic carbon (TOC); electrical conductivity (EC); inorganic elements: Cr, Zn, Cd, Cu, Pb, Hg; and one organic element—polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). The analysis was carried out in accordance with the EU and national legislation requirements regarding landfill monitoring. The assessment of the groundwater and analysis indicators of the leachate pollution allowed interpretation of the impact of the municipal solid waste landfill on the state of the water environment in the immediate vicinity. The results show that the increased values of Cd, EC, and TOC turned out to be the determinants of the negative impact of leachate on the groundwater quality below the landfill. The integrated water threat model determined the potential negative impact of a landfill site. The extent depended on local environmental conditions and the self-cleaning process. Deterioration of the chemical status in the quality of the groundwater within the landfill area was a consequence of the lack of efficiency of the existing drainage system, which may result from the 19-year period of its use. The applied correlation relationship between physicochemical elements between leachate and groundwater with a time shift due to the extended time of migration of contaminants or mass transfer in waterlogged ground can be an important tool to identify the threat of groundwater pollution in the area of landfill sites.

The methods of sewage sludge management in Poland have largely been determined by the legal requirements related to the Poland’s membership in the European Union. Since 1st January 2016, sewage sludge landfilling is prohibited. It must be emphasised that legal changes regarding wastewater management, along with the systematic increase in the volume of produced sludge, entail the necessity to change the existing method of sewage sludge management. This paper contains an analysis of solutions for management of sewage sludge produced in Poland over the period of 8 years. The goal of the work was an assessment of comprehensive management of sewage sludge produced in Poland from 2009 to 2016. Despite the decrease in the agricultural use of sewage sludge, their average share of 32% was the highest among other forms of sewage sludge management in Poland. Another form, related with the final stage of sewage sludge management, concerned its thermal processing. It was treated as a promising method, with a 19% increase over the analysed period. An optimal solution should be found to ensure safe management of sewage sludge.

The paper aims to determine the most significant physicochemical indicators of the effects that a lined landfill in southern Poland has had on groundwater quality. The results of the tests of groundwater and leachate water from the landfill for the period 2009 to 2016 were subjected to a detailed statistical analysis based on the 10 physicochemical parameters. A factor analysis was conducted considering the European Union and national requirements for landfills using analytical and statistical tools. The leachate contamination indicators from a landfill were analysed to reveal their interaction with the groundwater. The assessment indicated that there was an elevated and statistically significantly higher electrical conductivity and copper and total organic carbon concentrations in groundwater hydraulically downgradient of the landfill. The assessment also indicated that there were significant differences in the correlations between chemical parameters downgradient of the landfill and that there was a trend of increasing concentrations of some chemical constituents in groundwater. The adverse effects of the landfill were due to the deposited amount of waste exceeding 10 Mg per day. The impact was noticeable despite low and decreasing concentrations of heavy metals (Hg, Cu, Cd, Pb and Zn) in the leachate. The deterioration of the chemical state of the groundwater in the landfill vicinity could result in the extended time of pollutant migration or mass transport in the irrigated soil medium due to the limited efficiency of the leachate intake system or sealing screen after more than 20 years of landfill operation.

This paper discusses interactions between the generation, collection and recovery of used tyres while considering an indicator of their mass accumulation per area in Poland. Notably, this study aimed to assess selected issues related to used tyre management efficiency from 2008 to 2018 based on European Union and national regulations. Within 11 years, over 5 million Mg of used tyres was introduced into the domestic market—exceeding the amount required for 50 million registered vehicles. It was demonstrated that a significant tyre waste management process involved the recovery of 47% of all tyres, which was almost entirely correlated with the total volume of tyres. Only the growth trend for generated tyres was considered significant, and the rarely used indicator of the accumulation of used tyres per area exhibited an uneven accumulation of used tyres, with the highest amount being 48.06 Mg km⁻² in a region with a small area but a significant volume of waste tyres. Therefore, the management of used tyres requires action in the country to optimally increase this form of waste collection while consolidating the development, gathering and processing infrastructure in the context of further minimising environmental pressure and increasing the efficiency of their use by considering the 4R principle.

The study aim was to analyse the influence of a municipal solid waste landfill site in operation for over 10 years on the aquatic environment using multiple indicators. The water around the landfill area must be controlled due to the possibility of leachate interaction with harmful substances in the environment. The tests were carried out on the basis of 24 indicators, of which four were the most significant: depth of groundwater retention, ammoniacal nitrogen (NH₄-N), dissolved oxygen (DO), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The assessment of the quality of the surface water and groundwater and the analysis of the leachate pollution indices enabled the interpretation of the influence of a specific municipal waste landfill on the nearby water environment condition, despite not exceeding the permissible content at the highest average concentration of NH₄-N at 1.34 mg L⁻¹. The differences were significant at the level ofp < 0.05 in the content of DO in the water below the landfill. The concentration of NH₄-N in the groundwater below the landfill was statistically significantly correlated with the depth of the groundwater deposits (r = 0.609). Similarly, the surface water below the landfill site showed a statistically significant relation in the piezometer, which was also below the landfill, to ammoniacal nitrogen (r = 0.749). This result confirmed the statistically significant differences in the aquatic environment and the correlations with NH₄-N and that, below the landfill, the penetration water seepage is moderate with a low waste accumulation not exceeding 10 Mg per day.