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This research focuses on the synthesis of novel low-cost granular sorbents based on bentonite clay of the Navbahor deposit, dust fraction of Angren brown coal, and agricultural wastes such as straw and sawdust to meet the internal needs of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The impact of the initial mixture ingredients on the structural and textural properties of bentonite-coal sorbents (BCSs) has been studied using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis. For determining the sorption capacity of BCSs, a standard model substance methylene blue (MB), was applied. It was revealed that the maximum adsorption amount of MB was 5.3 mg∙g−1 during 2 h of contact. Prolonging the contact time to 24 h allowed for more extensive diffusion of dye molecules into the sorbent's pores, increasing the adsorption capacity to 13 mg∙g−1. It was demonstrated that BCSs could be regenerated by strong oxidizing agents such as sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide, with sulfuric acid proving more effective. Regeneration fully restores sorption properties, particularly at low dye concentrations (up to 0.2 mg∙ml−1). Despite slight reductions in adsorption capacity over multiple regeneration cycles, the sorbents maintain their structural integrity and durability. It is shown that compared to imported expensive activated carbon, the gross profitability of the in-house production of such granular BCSs within the territory of Uzbekistan increases from 48 to 78%, while the net income increases almost three times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource depletion and food waste accumulation represent a tremendous socio-economic and environmental problem. One promising strategy involves the use of byproducts derived from food waste as ingredients for cosmetic products. The aim of this work is to propose clementine peels and olive leaf extracts as value-added bioproducts for a cosmetic cream. Extracts were obtained by super critical extraction showing an antioxidant activity of ca. 25%. No cytotoxic effects of the extracts were recorded on keratinocyte cells up to a concentration of 4% v/v ratio within 24 h. The incorporation of clementine peels and olive leaf extracts into creams did not compromise their stability, as demonstrated by Turbiscan analyses at room and extreme (40 °C) storage conditions. The safety profiles of the final cosmetic formulations were further in vivo demonstrated on human volunteers. We analyzed the trans-epidermal water loss and variation of the skin's erythematous index, which showed profiles that almost overlapped with the negative control. Moreover, rheological analysis of the resulting creams evidences their suitable spreadability with similar pseudoplastic profiles, although a slight reduction of viscosity was recorded by improving the extracts' concentrations. The proposed approach highlights the advantage of combining byproduct resources and supercritical fluid extraction to obtain a safe and eco-friendly face cream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: This scoping review emphasizes the environmental responsibility of dental healthcare concerning dental solid waste. It calls for a collective effort to ensure that the practices aimed at preserving health do not compromise the well-being of our planet and future generations, avoiding the improper disposal and accumulation of dental waste. In the face of 21st-century environmental challenges, including climate change, migration pressures, and waste disposal issues, certain healthcare sectors, notably dentistry, pose a significant global environmental footprint with concerns about carbon emissions and waste production. This scoping review searches the paradox that healthcare, while dedicated to safeguarding health, inadvertently contributes to environmental degradation through waste accumulation and disposal. The analysis of the relevant literature emphasizes the imperative for an environmentally sustainable approach to dental waste measurement, disposal methods, and comprehensive education for stakeholders. Aligned with the World Conference on Sustainable Development and the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, the study adhered to PRISMA-ScR systematic review guidelines and the Institute of Medicine's recommendations. The study utilized Medline/PubMed and international organization websites for data retrieval, employing Boolean operator queries in Medline. The systematic literature analysis identified six cross-sectional studies (2004–2023) highlighting variations in dental waste composition due to the lack of standardized identification methods. This heterogeneity underscores the need for a proposed research model, emphasizing comprehensive methodologies and healthcare staff training in waste management, thus transforming the analysis into a scoping review. The study advocates for environmentally conscious dental practices, contributing to broader sustainable healthcare goals through sharing of a research protocol for dental solid waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we compare the development and possibilities for improvement of waste management in three countries: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Waste management is part of the circular economy. The circular economy is the basis for waste management today. This applies to municipal waste management, too. In this paper, we work with data available in the Eurostat database. We mainly deal with municipal waste in the three chosen countries. The output of this paper is an assessment of indicators such as recycling rates and waste production. The outputs are documented graphically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to population growth, the generation of solid waste in Morocco constantly increases, considerably impacting water, soil, and air. To minimize this impact, proper waste management is necessary. This research examines waste generation development in Rabat, Sale, and Temara cities in 2015, 2018, and 2019. This allows us to propose solutions to environmental problems and to discuss upstream and downstream management modalities. According to this study, the total amount of waste in Sale changes between 17,947.6 t/month, 21,256.6 t/month, and 20,852 t/month, whereas it ranges between 25,017.6 t/month, 24,031.7 t/month, and 24,038.1 t/month for Rabat in 2015, 2018, and 2019. The lowest quantities are 12,901.3 t/month, 10,104.3 t/month, and 1032.5 t/month in Temara for 2015, 2018, and 2019. The data obtained will serve as an aid to decision‐making to guide proper management. Moreover, sensitizing the population on the issue of waste management is necessary to protect the environment and human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are significant contributors to climate change, and CO2 equivalent (CO2-e) is measured to compare emissions from GHGs. The healthcare sector contributes 4.4% of global CO2-e emissions, mainly with energy consumption and, in lesser extent, waste production. In this regard, bronchoscopy procedures produce a large amount of waste and are responsible for a significant consumption of energy. Objective: We aimed at quantifying the impact on waste mass production, energy consumption, and recyclability of bronchoscopic procedures. Methods: We conducted a prospective single-centre observational study; for each type of procedure (performed with either reusable or single-use instruments), the number of items used, their weight, and recyclability were evaluated, as well as the material of which recyclable waste was made of. We then calculated the total amount of waste produced, its recyclability, energy consumption, and CO2-e produced over 10 days of activity in our Interventional Pulmonology Unit. Results: Sixty procedures generated 61,928 g of waste, of which only 15.8% was potentially recyclable. Single-use instruments generated nearly twofold more recyclable waste than reusable ones, 80% during the procedure phase. Reusable instruments generated 45% of waste during the reprocessing phase, of which 50% was recyclable. The recyclable material was totally composed of paper and plastic. During 10 days of activity, we consumed 64 kWh and produced more than 67 kg of CO2-e due to non-recyclable waste and energy consumption. Conclusions: Our results confirm the compelling need to recycle as many materials as possible, even if the amount of recyclable waste is limited. In this respect, official documents issued by international societies are urgently needed to align our activity with climate requirements and improve the sustainability of our work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Good health and a safe environment are essential for sustainable development, including the appropriate management of healthcare wastes. The study intends to assess the generation rate and management methods of healthcare waste in the regional hospital center and a private clinic in Tangier, Morocco, with a focus on potential risks to health workers from infectious diseases. METHODS: The study collected data on healthcare waste generation over a period of two months by measuring and analyzing general and hazardous waste using an electronic scale. The data was presented as averages in kilograms per bed per day and as percentages. A questionnaire was provided to 100 healthcare workers. It included questions on their sociodemographic characteristics and their knowledge and attitudes regarding healthcare waste management. FINDINGS: The case study revealed that the healthcare waste production in the two institutions varied, with the private clinic producing 0.76 kilograms per day per bed and the regional hospital center producing 1.84 kilograms per day per bed. The survey also discovered that the hazardous fraction of waste generated in the regional hospital center was 40 percent, which was much higher than the World Health Organization's estimation. The daily amount of hazardous waste generated increased from 260.49 kilograms to 436.81 kilograms post-COVID-19. The survey found gaps in knowledge, attitudes, and daily challenges in waste management practices among the health workers in both facilities. CONCLUSION: The survey findings suggest that the healthcare waste management methods in Tangier are unsafe and may endanger the health workers and patients. The study found that the lack of monitoring and control contributed significantly to noncompliance with good practices. These findings can be used by the regional divisions of the Ministry of Health to develop specific protocols for managing sanitary emergencies and perform routine observation and training at all levels in the two facilities studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic plans for waste management require information on the current and future waste generation as a primary data source. Over the years, various approaches and methods for waste generation modeling have been presented and applied. This review provides a summary of the tasks that require information on waste generation that are most frequently handled in waste management. It is hypothesized that there is not currently a modeling approach universally suitable for forecasting any fraction of waste. It is also hypothesized that most models do not allow for modeling different scenarios of future development. Almost 360 publications were examined in detail, and all of the tracked attributes are included in the supplementary. A general step-by-step guide to waste generation forecasting, comprising data preparation, pre-processing, processing, and post-processing, was proposed. The problems that occurred in the individual steps were specified, and the authors' recommendations for their solution were provided. A forecasting approach based on a short time series is presented, due to insufficient options of approaches for this problem. An approach is presented for creating projections of waste generation depending on the expected system changes. Researchers and stakeholders can use this document as a supporting material when deciding on a suitable approach to waste generation modeling or waste management plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of the circular economy as a term was first mentioned in 2015, when the "Action Plan for the circular economy" was adopted at the European level, it is still not possible to speak of a sufficient knowledge base in this area. The Action Plan (COM (2015) 614) can be seen as an initial strategic document that sets out a concrete and ambitious roadmap for implementing the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. However, the European Green Agreement cannot be left out in this context either (COM(2019) 640). It is seen as a new growth strategy to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society with a modern, competitive, resource-efficient economy, with net greenhouse gas emissions expected to be zero by 2050 and economic growth independent of resource use. A new EU circular economy action plan - Towards a cleaner and more competitive Europe was also adopted in 2020 (COM(2020) 98). The main priority areas are measures focusing on the value chains of key products electronics and ICT (information and communication technologies), batteries and vehicles, plastics, textiles, packaging, construction and buildings, food, water and nutrients measures covering all links in the value chain from production to consumption, repair and refurbishment, waste management up to the return of raw materials back to the economy and their use in the production cycle in the form of secondary raw materials. The transition to a circular economy also includes a revision of the European waste directives: on waste, on packaging and packaging waste, on landfills, on batteries and accumulators and used batteries and accumulators, and on waste electrical and electronic equipment. In order for all of this to be possible, it is necessary to know the amount of waste produced by individual sectors, which is also dealt with in our article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to a circular economy can be realized with higher waste recycling. With the knowledge of waste flows and the links between them, it is possible to plan the infrastructure of the entire system and set the goals needed for the transition to a circular economy. If the statistical analysis does not provide quality models, it is possible to describe waste flows using basic balance relationships. This contribution presents an optimization model based on quadratic programming. The output of the model is an estimate of the waste amount that was managed to divert from mixed municipal waste to separate fractions in the past period. A key input is an estimate of the composition of mixed municipal waste. For a more detailed territorial model, composition estimates are often not available, so an optimization model using the principle of credibility has been proposed. Uncertain information for lower territorial units is corrected by aggregated results for the national level. The resulting optimization models were tested on the data of the Czech Republic for the period 2010–2018 in annual detail. The result interprets what part of the newly separated waste comes from mixed municipal waste. For the significant monitored fractions this value is low, 0.26 for bio-waste in the Czech Republic. On the contrary, the high part of the shift from mixed municipal waste is for plastic, 0.82. The results showed the advantage of correction at lower territory levels due to the high variability of the input data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has been described as the "defining issue of our time". The wide-ranging effects of climate change are well documented. These effects include a change in weather patterns with more frequent extreme weather events, loss of biodiversity, loss of food security, political instability and declining health. Sub-Saharan Africa is especially vulnerable to climate change, even though the region only accounts for a fraction of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The healthcare sector contributes significantly to climate change. Within healthcare, the provision of anaesthesia is associated with a disproportional contribution to GHG emissions, waste production and energy consumption. Anaesthesia providers were identified as crucial role players in improving sustainability within medicine. A growing body of literature emphasises the importance of sustainable anaesthesia practices. Recommendations are regularly updated based on expanding knowledge. However, the subject matter is broad and often falls outside the sphere of anaesthesiology, making it challenging and time-consuming to identify information relevant to clinical practice. Furthermore, recommendations might differ depending on a multitude of circumstances. This review aims to simplify and summarise contemporary literature and recommendations, and present these concisely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic wastewater is an important alternative source of water in the face of a growing discrepancy between water availability and demand. The use of techniques that enable the urban reuse of treated sewage is essential to make cities more sustainable and resilient to water scarcity. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of an electrocoagulation-flotation system in the treatment of domestic wastewater for urban reuse. The study was performed using raw domestic wastewater samples. The electrocoagulation-flotation system was a cylindrical reactor with aluminum electrodes. The treatment conditions involved agitation at 262.5 rpm, electrical current of 1.65 A, electrolysis time of 25 min, an initial pH of 6, and inter-electrode distance of 1 cm. Overall, the electrocoagulation-flotation system was highly efficient for removal of apparent color (97.9%), chemical oxygen demand (82.9%), turbidity (95.8%), and orthophosphate phosphorous (> 98.2%). The electrocoagulation-flotation system had a consumption of electrical energy ranging from 9.5 to 13.3 kWh m−3, electrode mass from 294.7 to 557.0 g m−3, and hydrochloric acid from 4.3 to 6.6 L m−3. Sludge production in the system ranged from 1,125.7 to 1,835.7 g m−3. Treated wastewater had a satisfactory quality for several urban reuse activities. The electrocoagulation-flotation system showed potential to be used for domestic wastewater treatment for urban reuse purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to quantify the amount of pharmaceutical waste produced in New Zealand, and determine the composition of pharmaceutical waste from community pharmacies in Auckland, New Zealand. Pharmaceutical waste collected in New Zealand is increasing, peaking at 542 tonne in 2019. Pharmaceutical waste collected from hospitals and pharmacies in Auckland increased by more than fourfold from 2016 to 2020. An audit of the types of pharmaceutical waste collected from community pharmacies revealed that the most common classes of drugs identified in this waste stream belonged to the nervous system, cardiovascular system and alimentary tract, and metabolism. Following examination of the contents of 12 pharmaceutical waste bins, 475 different pharmaceutical products were identified, highlighting the breadth of drugs in this waste stream. A range of dosage forms and hence materials were identified, which could present challenges for future waste treatment approaches. Hazardous drugs were identified including cytotoxic compounds, which should go into a separate waste stream for incineration. There is a need for similar data to be collected from multiple sites to fully appreciate the magnitude and composition of pharmaceutical waste. This will allow for the suitability of current practices for managing this hazardous waste stream to be evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Dimension stones industry is an industry with significant economic potential that has been overgrowing in recent years. Despite this growth, this industry faces several significant challenges, including very low efficiency, high production costs, and many wastes generation and resource loss during extraction and processing phases. To overcome these issues, further studies are needed to discover the causes of these problems, determine how to update existing technologies, replace them with more efficient alternatives, and find out how to use new and advanced optimization methods in dimension stones exploration and extraction and processing procedures. Regardless of the approach, these measures' primary purpose should be to achieve better results in recovery rate, production costs, resource loss, and waste generation. In this paper, the amount of waste generated in different phases of the dimension stone production process was investigated. This investigation showed that about 51% of all the material extracted from dimension stone quarries turns into waste during the extraction operation, and roughly 41% of the material that arrives at dimension stone processing plants turns into waste during the processing operation. Therefore, the overall recovery rate of the dimension stone production process is approximately 29%, signifying the significant volumes of resources lost and the large amounts of waste generated. The paper also discusses the types of waste generated in different phases of the dimension stones production process, production factors in each case, and solutions that can be adopted to minimize waste generation in each phase of this industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the impact of poor solid waste management on student's health care at Gondar University of "Tewodros" campus. The study used a mixed-method approach. To recruit sample respondents', both probability and non-probability sampling methods have been employed. In the meantime, the study revealed the sources of solid waste, it is understood that the poorly collected and managed solid wastes of the study area due to the lack of necessary materials and facilities of waste collection, lack of laborers engaged in street sweeping and daily removal of solid waste is now becoming the major causes of environmental problems such as surface and groundwater pollution problems. Besides, the student's health office personnel in the interview approached the general health status of the students on the campus during this year. Accordingly, dysentery, common cold, and typhoid are the most frequently appear disease on the Tewodros campus. Therefore, there should be a "students committee "at the campus level to control illegal dumping and to develop practice and habits of poor waste handling and disposal in the community, and there must be apparent regulation and policy frameworks that pro-hibit poor waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food waste management (FWM) is considered to be an extremely important social issue besides an environmental one. Worldwide, it is estimated that 1.3 billion t/year of foods are disposed of in landfills (including edible and inedible foods). Moreover, FAO indicated that if food waste (FW) was a country, it could be the 3rd biggest CO2 producer after China and the USA with more than 3.5–4.2 billion of t equivalence CO2. Each citizen in the entire EU produces approximately 179 kg/year FW equal more or less with 600 €/year. This paper focuses on the concept of circular economy (CE) and how can we optimize and improve the production of biogas from UASB-R (upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor) using FW and natural minerals (clinoptilolite). The study was elaborated through laboratory scale experiments using different mixtures of FW, liquid waste from slaughterhouse (LWS), and natural clinoptilolite (Cli). The amount of biogas produced and the methane content of biogas were used as indicators in order to monitor and asses the performance of the anaerobic digester. The results of the present study were encouraging towards the use of FW in existing anaerobic treatment plants, suggesting selective collection at source of FW, diversion from landfills, and use as a secondary resource for energy recovery through a transition to a CE. The results indicate that the use of FW with zeolite duplicates the production of CH4 within the same days of production compared with the control sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production in the food industry is demanding as there is lot of waste and different technological level of environmental security. So, it's a source of negative impact on the environment. The aim of the research is studying of proposals to improve the economic and environmental management in the food industry. In the study were used general scientific methods: statistical and economic (comparative analysis of environmental charges, environmental taxes and penalties for violations of environmental laws, the volume of capital investments for environmental protection and emissions of pollutants into the environment of the food business in Vinnytsia region for the period 2009-2012), systemic and abstract logical analysis (theoretical generalizations and drawing conclusions). The results of the study indicate that for the period 2009-2012, businesses environmental payments remain stable, and the volume of capital investments for environmental protection was gradually increased. Average food business in Vinnytsia region cares about the environment condition by reducing the emissions into the environment. The authors have proposed measures to improve the economic and environmental management of the food business to meet the requirements of the international standards ISO 14000, namely: responsibility for the ecology of the company, implementation of ecological modernization of fixed assets, resource conservation, promotion of environmentally friendly technologies, high professional skills of staff in environmental culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption, water utilisation and waste production are now important environmental issues. However, compilations of data are not readily available, making it difficult for companies to assess how they are performing. This review aims to summarise the data that are available, including some benchmarking values. Also discussed are techniques for reducing water and energy consumption and waste production, tools for monitoring this and assistance that is available to improve efficiency ratios and reduce costs associated with these issues. Using information in this review, an individual company should be able to compare its performance against others producing similar products, nationally or globally in order to set and maintain rational benchmarking values to improve its performance and deal with environmental concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on analytical models of two-machine one-buffer Markov lines including waste production. The aim is to compute the probability of producing good parts, referred to aseffective efficiency, when waste production is related to stoppages of the first machine. This problem is common in industrial fields where parts are generated by a continuous process; e.g., in high-speed beverage packaging lines. Two innovative models including waste production are presented: the WP-Basic Model extends the model of a basic two-machine–one-buffer transfer line; the WP-RP Model extends the model of a two-machine–one-buffer transfer line with a restart policy operating on the first machine (i.e., when the first machine is blocked because the buffer is filled, it is not allowed to resume production until the buffer becomes empty). The two existing models are improved by distinguishing, at any time step the first machine is operational, whether it is producing a good or a bad part. The probabilities of the system being in any feasible state are analytically derived for both the WP-Basic Model and the WP-RP Model. Then, the obtained probabilities are used to determine the performance measures of interest; i.e., waste probability and effective efficiency. Finally, some numerical results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the WP-Basic Model and the WP-RP Model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to observe the effect of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus density in stagnant and running water systems on the waste production, water quality and mortality. Nine months old male catfish having average weight of 50.00g were placed in running and stagnant water systems with density of 35 and 70, respectively. Water samples were collected twice daily and analyzed for ammonia nitrogen, phosphate and nitrate contents. The samples were analyzed with HACH spectrophotometers DR2800. Water samples temperature, pH and mortality rate were also recorded for each sampling. The results showed significant difference with higher value in stagnant than running water system for ammonia nitrogen (25.95±3.38 mg/L), phosphate (14.14±1.37 mg/L) and nitrate (2.28±0.25 mg/L) with density of 35 catfish. Similar result was obtained for density of 70 catfish which was significantly higher for stagnant than running water system. This study allow to conclude that African catfish were more suitable to be reared in running than stagnant water system. This is due to the ability of the running water system to maintain water quality in terms of waste production which was harmful to the catfish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fundamental to environmental conservation, the spatial location of biodiversity, people and protected areas has been studied for the species richness of various taxa, including plants, invertebrates and birds. However, few avian studies have analysed these three-way interactions for total versus breeding, and for threatened, human-avoiding and human–adapted species. Correlations between bird species richness, human population size and protected areas were studied across Italy's regions, controlling for variations in area, latitude, main land cover and spatial autocorrelation. Whilst total bird species richness increases with increasing human population size, breeding species richness does not vary with human population size. The number of globally threatened bird species is positively correlated with human population size, but this correlation is not significant when controlling for overall region bird species richness. There is no evidence that the increase in total bird species richness with human population size is owing to species typically found in urban habitats, and the proportion of human-avoiding species increases with human population size. For all groups of species, there is a negative correlation of the number of species with the proportion of protected area, indicating that the conservation of Italy's avifauna should be addressed over the entire landscape, and not just in protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hospital waste contains large quantities of hazardous materials. In Iran, as in many developing countries, not much attention has been paid to this matter. Little information is available regarding the generation and disposal of medical waste in Iran, and this fact hinders planning for a better management of the aforementioned waste. This paper describes a survey performed on the collection and disposal of waste in the university hospitals of the Fars province, which are the medical referral centres in the southern half of the country, and the results obtained are fully discussed. The lack of separation between hazardous and non- hazardous waste, an absence of necessary rules and regulations applying to the collection of waste from the hospital wards and the on-site transport to a temporary storage location, a lack of proper waste treatment, disposal of hospital waste along with municipal garbage, insufficient training of personnel, insufficient personal protective equipment and lack of knowledge regarding the proper use of such equipment, were the main findings. For a rapid improvement of existing conditions, performing extensive research for the assessment of present situation in the hospitals of this country, compilation of rules and establishment of standards along with effective training for the personnel is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The constant consumption of resources exerts pressure on the environment. In this sense, waste management has obtained increasing attention from the view of a circular economy. The European Union deals with these mentioned aspects, trying maintain long-term competitiveness and to provide sustainable development in accordance with all related environmental aspects. This paper focuses on the evaluation of the production of communal waste in 36 EU countries. The main aim is to evaluate the success of countries' efforts to decrease waste production and increase recycling rates. The methodology used for the evaluation included data collected from the publicly available database Eurostat, consequent analyses and evaluation in the statistical software JMP 13 through regression, distribution, and cluster analysis, and the interpretation of the results. The results of the cluster analysis showed that despite clear EU waste management legislation, EU member states have significantly different waste management systems at the national level. However, generally, we could see positive correlation between the generation of waste and recycling rates. Although, Malta, Austria, Greece, and Norway recorded a decreasing level of waste recycling over the last several years, some countries (Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania) had significantly lower recycling rates accompanied by low landfill taxes. The evaluation of waste production and recycling can be used for government policy in the area of waste management, as well as for individual communities dealing with communal waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]