Quantitative assessment method of illegal dumping în small rivers: case study: Neamt County, Romania

Abstract

Poor waste management facilities from Romanian rural areas lead to uncontrolled waste disposal on improper sites. These bad practices are frequently in the the proximity of built-up areas , therefore, the small rivers inside these areas are susceptible to waste dumping. The paper aims to develop a quantitative assessment method of waste disposed into such small rivers from extra-Carpathian region of Neamț county. The lack of organized waste collection services from 2003 lead to high values of waste disposed in such rivers frequently over 15 t/yr for each one. Despite some improvements compared to 2003 the small rivers inside built-up areas of villages are still highly exposed to waste dumping. The values vary depending on demographic and geographic features of each locality and on the other side, due to the presence of an organized waste collection system.The results and comparative analysis between 2003 and 2010 show some positive changes but the illegal dumping issue is far from being eliminated.