ABSTRACT
Keywords: sewage sludge, minimization, disintegration
handling methods are agricultural applications and composting or thermal incineration. It should be noted that the largest sludge ‘producer’ i.e. Germany and largest unit sludge ‘producer’ ( Austria) apply agriculture/composting and incineration methods in similar proportions. In other countries, the predominance of one of these two methods may be observed e.g. in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, the Czech Republic and Hungary where agricultural methods dominate while in the Netherlands and Switzerland at least 90% of sludge is incinerated. Italy is the only country where landfilling remains the leading method of disposal, while Poland declares that over 50% of the sludge is subjected to the “other methods of disposal”. The total annual mass of sewage sludge, generated at the Polish WWTP increased in years 2000-2008. However, currently it tends to decrease slightly. It may be credited to major investments in construction of new treatment plants that took place since 1990s until the end of last decade. The funds were followed by the operational optimization. An improvement of plants operation resulted in a decrease of amount of sewage sludge stored at the WWTP.
