This article seeks to present the scale of inter-municipal cooperation in waste management in Poland in the light of the role of three key factors of cooperation. The first shows spatial regularities in the distribution of inter-municipal bodies involved in waste management in Poland, both in the system of voivodeships and historical-cultural regions. The second is institutional conditions confirming the scale of the Europeanisation of public policies taking place in Poland. It embraces the implementation of the EU legal framework in the Polish legal system and the cooperative behaviour of municipalities as a result of those changes. The third is a negative verification of the assumptions of the economic theory upholding the role of financial motivation in establishing cooperation (looking for savings and economies of scale to reduce unit cost); the presented results do not corroborate this type of motivation.

There is mounting evidence that the current model of economic development negatively affects many ecological processes and creates serious threats to the sustainability of economic processes and welfare. In response to those threats, policies have been introduced at supranational and national levels to alleviate the most burning environmental challenges and mitigate their consequences for humanity. At the same time, however, there is a growing understanding that economy–environment relations have to be analysed and approached from a geographical perspective, as this sheds more light on spatial differences and specificities, the unevenness of transition processes and their social consequences as well as the need to perform the transition towards sustainability in a spatially sensitive manner. This article seeks to reconstruct and analyse two processes – urban sprawl and the automobile revolution – that took place in the Polish urban regions during the systemic transformation period and to discuss their potential consequences for the transition to sustainability from a geographical perspective. We show that different places, due to their specificities and legacies, start sustainability transitions from different initial conditions that might affect the pace of this process as well as its environmental and social consequences.

The purpose of the article is to identify the volume and spatial structure of imports of used cars to Poland during the first 15 years of membership in the European Union, using data from the Central Register of Vehicles. The article attempts to answer three key research questions: (1) What was the volume of imports of used cars to Poland in the period 2004-2018 against the background of the volume of imports into other selected countries and in relation to the level of sales of new cars? (2) From where (which countries) to where (which regions of Poland) were used cars imported? (3) How does the import of used cars affect the age structure of passenger cars in Poland? The conclusions of the study are as follows. In the period 2004-2018, nearly 12 million used cars were imported to Poland, which makes Poland the world leader in this field. The changes in the volume of imports were mainly influenced by the economic slowdown and lowering of consumers' income levels, vehicle scrapping programs in Western Europe (which reduced the supply of older cars in these countries) and the value of the zloty against the euro. Most cars were imported from Germany, and the main gateways for imported cars were the so-called "car crescent", located mainly in the Wielkopolska region. The average age of imported cars varied from around 8.5 to around 11 years and increased the average age of cars in Poland.

Rynek samochodów osobowych – ze względu na skalę, dynamikę i konsekwencje jego rozwoju – staje się w coraz większym zakresie przedmiotem badań wielu dyscyplin naukowych, w tym geografii. Przemiany tego rynku są uzależnione w szczególności od dochodów i preferencji mieszkańców, polityki państw i organizacji międzynarodowych oraz poziomu rozwoju gospodarek, w szczególności rozwoju przemysłu motoryzacyjnego. Z drugiej strony, wielkość oraz struktura rynku samochodów osobowych w istotny sposób wpływają na poziom PKB wielu państw rozwiniętych, na eksport samochodów używanych do krajów peryferyjnych oraz na jakość środowiska przyrodniczego. Wpływ ten zaznacza się również na poziomie regionalnym i lokalnym (np. kwestia dostępności przestrzennej dóbr i usług). Dlatego w badania rynku samochodów osobowych włączają się coraz częściej specjaliści zajmujący się geografią ekonomiczną oraz geografią rozwoju regionalnego. Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie wybranych kierunków, a także wyników badań rynku samochodów osobowych, ze szczególnym wyeksponowaniem ich wymiaru geograficznego. Koncentrują się one wokół czterech głównych grup zagadnień: (1) poziomu motoryzacji i modelowania popytu na samochody, (2) relacji między rynkiem aut nowych i używanych w krajach rozwijających się, (3) roli czynników przestrzennych i transportu publicznego w funkcjonowaniu rynku samochodowego oraz (4) skutków środowiskowych upowszechnienia motoryzacji i sposobów ich ograniczania, takich jak elektromobilność oraz ekonomia współdzielenia.

Aim of the study: A centre-periphery structure reflects spatial inequalities in the level of economic development of countries and regions. Most often, it provides a simplified picture of spatial distribution of income or spatial accessibility. In this study the authors try to identify the relationship between the level of centrality/peripherality of an area and selected features of the personal car market, using the case of Poland. Method: In order to identify the relationship between the level of centrality/peripherality of an area and selected features of the peresonal car market, the correlation and regression analysis has been used. As a dependent variable the index of centrality/peripherality consisting of population and enterprise income has been calculated for all Polish communes (gminas). The features of the car market (independent variables) are: 1) car ownership (number of cars per 1000 inhabitants), 2) sales of new cars, 3) the import of second-hand cars, and 4) the average age of personal cars. Result: The research confirmed a positive correlation between the index of centrality/peripherality (and hence the central character of the commune) and the sales of new automobiles, and a negative correlation with the average age of cars. There is no correlation between the level of centrality/peripherality of an area and the indicators of car ownership and the import of second-hand vehicles.

The article aims to identify the shortcomings of the statistics describing the size and structure of passenger car parc in Poland, and to formulate the consequences of these limitations for geographical research. Analysed in detail, the shortcomings are divided into three groups: (1) ‘dead souls’, i.e. an overestimation of the number of vehicles which have not been on the road for a long time but remain on the register; (2) ‘cars with a grid’ (cars registered as trucks in which the cargo part is separated from passenger seats by a metal grid), i.e. an underestimation of the number of passenger cars and overestimation of the number of trucks related to the mass phenomenon of registering passenger cars as large goods vehicles (LGV-approved cars); and (3) company cars, i.e. an overestimation of the number of vehicles in cities where leasing companies and large enterprises owning those cars have their headquarters. The article determines the scale of car ownership overestimation in Poland and the areas where this overestimation is the highest, using districts (PL: powiaty) as basic spatial units. We conclude that the present motorisation statistics do not fully reflect the real geography of car ownership in Poland.