Waste management and their environmental impact: Challenges and opportunities at national level

Both nationally and globally, waste generation increases with increasing product consumption. Thus, addressing the issue of waste is an ongoing challenge for researchers around the world. This challenge derives from the fact that in many European countries, including Romania, the amount of waste generated is very high compared to current technologies for treatment, recycle or recovery. Therefore, the most convenient management methods remain storage and incineration. These methods generate significant amounts of hazardous pollutants with a significant impact on the environment and human health. The paper presents a series of results related to waste management obtained within National Research and Development Institute for Industrial Ecology – ECOIND Bucharest in the last 10 years. The paper is focused on four topics: analytical detection and monitoring pollutants from waste; environmental impact and risk assessments; waste classification and management; waste treatment and recovery technologies. The results obtained within these topics refers to optimal methods for detection and characterization of complex waste matrices, methods for assessing the impact on the environment generated by non-compliant landfills and risk prediction and reliable solutions and technologies for waste treatment and recovery. The topics approached represent a challenge for starting the implementation of circular economy concept promoted by EU and adopted by countries and governments all over the world.