Using waste hierarchy concept for optimizing the management of the waste disposal amount and implicitly of the possible ecological risk

Abstract

The problem of applying the concept of waste hierarchy is presented considering the practical situation of packaging waste management to reduce the disposed waste amount and to control the possible ecological risk brought by them. The updated European and Romanian legislation is presented with emphasis on practical application at the organizational level so that the packaging waste recovery objectives, as they are shown in the legislative documents and national strategies, to be fulfilled by finding first the recovery possibilities and only afterwards the disposal ones for the environmental and human health protection.