Among the 123 million tonnes of industrial wastes produced in Poland in 1995 over 60% was created by mining for raw materials for the the fuel and energy industries. Together with the wastes from the left over branches of the mining industry, as well as the metallurgical and non-ferrous metal industries they amounted to 90% of the total quantity of wastes.
Among them:
– 46% were mining (including rock) wastes created in mines and processing plants;
– 23% were post-floatation sludge and washing wastes from the coal-mining, barite, sulphur, copper and zinc-lead industries;
– 16% were fly-ashes and slag from electric power stations and thermoelectric power stations as well as mineral dusts.
The amount of industrial wastes which were deposited in 1995 in landfills, spoil-heaps, settling ponds, etc. measured 55.5 million tonnes. Mining for raw materials for the fuel and energy industries generated almost half of that amount of waste while the three above mentioned groups deposited about 89% (49.6 million tonnes) of the total amount.

The spatial distribution of industrial wastes produced in 1995 (arranged according to voivodship) is presented in MAP – illustrated wastes produced. The largest potential hazard is observed in Katowice (over half of the total amount of wastes in the country!) and Legnica voivodship (over 20% of the total).The burden of wastes directed to landfills and similar facilities is the largest in these two voivodships:
– Katowice – 40% of domestic wastes directed to storage;
– Legnica – 34%.

In the majority of these voivodships, extraction, processing of minerals and power generating industry wastes are predominant. Another hazard is created by wastes from the sodium industry in Bydgoszcz voivodship, phosphogypsums in Szczecin and steel-work slag in Cracow

According to data from the Central Statistical Office in Warsaw, it is estimated that about 3% of the total quantity of wastes produced each year are especially hazardous to the health of man and living organisms. They are mainly toxic wastes produced by chemical (non iron metals) and coking industries, steel-mills, the machine-making industry and some branches of light industry. They are created in small quantities throughout the whole country, but their largest concentrations occur in southern Poland (MAP – illustrated wastes produced) and especially in Katowice, Legnica, Walbrzych, and Krakow voivoidships.

Municipal wastes are mainly wastes from residences, facilities servicing people (trade, restaurants, schools, government offices, health-care, etc.) and from open terrain (roads, parks and recreation areas). Municipal wastes often include wastes from handicraft shops and branches of industry which produce wastes similar to municipal ones.

About 40 to 50% of municipal wastes are organic, while the rest are mineral. The intensity of municipal waste production throughout Poland is proportional to population density. It is estimated that in 1995 for each person whose garbage was disposed of there were an average of 2.5 m³ of waste produced, of which over one-third was industrial production and commmercial waste that municipal services disposed of.

The amount of wastes per inhabitant varies depending on the characteristics of the commune, the standard of living, the housing structure, and on the level of services and heating methods.

A fraction of a percent of municipal waste is especially hazardous to humans and living organisms. Among these extremely dangerous wastes are toxic substance con tainers, paint thinner leftovers, paint and lacquer, expired medicines and chemicals, contagious materials, used-up batteries, fluorescent lights, etc. When they are disposed of together with other municipal wastes, even in small quantities, they create a hazard to municipal services workers and may potentially become a trouble some flow of pollutants into the environment.

In 1995, almost 99% of municipal waste was directed to landfills, which altogether cover 3,020 hectares. Only about .1% of the waste was processed in several composting plants (Warsaw, Suwalki, Kolobrzeg and Zielona Gora). In 1995, about 1,000 tonnes of leftover ashes from dangerous medical waste which had been burned, was dumped in communal landfills.

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