Door to door collection. Slovaks are already doing it, in Poland there are no volunteers

• Most of us claim that we segregate waste, although kitchen waste is segregated much less frequently than plastic or metal.
• Only 35% of people are aware that bio-waste is composted or processed into fertilizer. And 40% simply do not know.
• When it comes to selective collection of kitchen waste, we still lack knowledge on what and how to collect it.

We do not lack good will. The vast majority of people want to segregate waste, including bio-waste. The problem is that the system is sometimes too complicated, inconvenient, and unclear. We do not always know what to put in the container. We have nowhere to put it. We do not know what will happen to its contents, and when frustration is accompanied by an unpleasant smell from the bin shed, it is easy to give up - all this results from the report "Confused about bio-waste. What do Polish women and Poles know about kitchen bio-waste?" prepared by the Opinia24 research studio on behalf of Bioodpady.pl.

The respondents were asked only about kitchen waste. Why? Because it has the greatest potential, and at the same time its collection is a challenge.

Interestingly, most of us claim to separate waste, although kitchen waste much less often than plastic or metal. Perhaps this stems from the belief that these are the “less harmful waste”?

Although practically all respondents segregate waste and report at most minor deviations from the rules, kitchen bio-waste is segregated the least often - only 71% of Poles declare that they do so.

Polish law defines bio-waste as organic materials from gardens and parks, food waste from households, restaurants, canteens, offices and shops, as well as similar waste from plants related to food production and distribution. In practice, for the average resident, bio-waste is two types of waste that differ in the place of production: these include vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee and tea grounds, leftovers (except meat), expired food, i.e. kitchen bio-waste, and mowed grass, fallen leaves, small branches and other plant garden residues, i.e. so-called garden bio-waste, also called green waste.

It is also worth noting that since the beginning of 2020, all property owners in Poland have been obliged to selectively collect bio-waste.

Joanna Kądziołka, president of the Zero Waste Polska Association, agrees that there is still too little happening in the area of ​​bio-waste collection, as far as local governments and residents are concerned. There is too little perception of collection as something that we can use in composting plants or biogas plants, and which can also allow us to achieve the required recycling levels.

We know that several hundred municipalities in Poland have received fines for failing to meet recovery and recycling targets, and here we have a path to success through properly collected bio-waste in various fields

- says Joanna Kądziołka.

According to our interviewee, education on this topic is still not enough. - Just telling residents to segregate is not enough. I also do not see a strong message not to collect bio-waste in plastic bags and unfortunately, the contamination of this raw material with plastic is still very high.

According to the report, although it may seem that almost everyone already knows about the value of bio and kitchen waste, the reality is slightly different. Only 35% are aware that bio waste is composted or processed into fertilizer. And 40% simply do not know. And as all studies show, awareness of the sense of putting effort into waste collection is the basis for success.

It may be quite shocking to learn that only 45% of respondents are aware that segregating bio-waste is mandatory. Every third person cannot state this, and 1 in 5 believes that there is no such obligation. This raises questions about the effectiveness of information campaigns.

Uncertainty regarding the principles of segregation was declared by 22% of respondents.

When it comes to kitchen waste collection, it is still in its infancy, everyone is learning it, it takes time. You have to convince people that it is worth doing, and as it turns out in practice, what encourages people to collect kitchen waste is showing residents that what they are doing makes sense, that this waste will be used, that their effort is not wasted. It works

- says Michał Paca from Bioodpady.pl.

- I think that in the case of organic waste, we could consider introducing door-to-door collection. This solution is used, for example, by Italians in Milan, but it is also becoming popular close to us, in Slovakia. This is the best way to collect very clean organic material. In the Slovak city of Partizanskie, the contamination of kitchen waste collected in this way is only 0.4% - convinces Joanna Kądziołka.

This requires the commune office to employ people to collect this waste twice a week, so one may ask whether it is worth it?

- There are costs, but the profit is greater because we do not have storage costs, we get very clean material - thanks to which it can be sold more easily and at a higher price, other fractions are not contaminated with kitchen waste, we do not pay fines because recovery levels are achieved. There are more benefits than expenses - enumerates the head of Zero Waste.

And as she says, today in Poland the contamination of kitchen waste is huge . - I was recently in the installation and the waste brought from residents included, for example... kettles. Unfortunately, education must be better, but in case of extreme neglect there must also be penalties, without that we will have a problem with collecting bio.

Michał Paca, however, argues that residents should be treated with more understanding, because collecting kitchen waste is not easy.

- More understanding? Yes, and this is because of what we care about, and we care about less pollution in the waste we collect. And there are two ways to do this: either we can focus on minimizing these pollutants, or we can make sure that we get more clean material, then this percentage of pollution will be less significant. We will achieve this effect because I believe that people prefer to do things with sense of their own free will and be aware of what they are doing, rather than being forced to do certain things well, but without knowing what it is about.