Management of waste from energy production – waste combustion in Poland

Energy production processes generate mineral waste – products of the combustion of solid fuels and waste from after-treatment systems. This is classified as group 10 waste – waste from thermal processes. For many years such waste has either been recovered or disposed of in landfills (D10 process), according to waste management hierarchy. The most important areas in which combustion waste is utilized are: the production of construction materials, macro-levelling, the rehabilitation of degraded land, and backfilling. Certain types of combustion waste are currently classified as a by-product. Energy mineral waste management is implemented in accordance with the provisions of the Waste Act of 14 December 2012. In spite of the examples of proper combustion waste management given in this paper, the amount of disposed waste had increased by 2016 while at the same time recovery on a national scale had declined. In 2016 both fly ash and compounds of fly ash and calcium-based reaction waste from flue-gas desulfurization in solid form were no longer disposal and the volume that was recovered had increased. The key problem are dust-slag compounds resulting from the wet treatment of furnace waste, almost 90% of which are landfilled. (paper)