Garbage is like water, but according to which meter? There is a clue
The main meter in the block is not enough to charge residents for garbage collection based on the water consumption rate. Municipalities must approach the issue differently.
In Poland, a total of over 14.2 million tons of municipal waste is generated annually. In 2024, waste production increased by 20 kg per person (5.6% per capita). In addition, garbage collection becomes more expensive – we pay on average about PLN 25 more per month. Municipalities are actively tracking down hidden residents. A good tip for officials is water consumption.
Some municipalities believe that for settlement purposes, it is enough to take into account data from the main water meter in apartment blocks. Turns out not. Settlement needs to be more individual.
Poles produce more and more garbage. But still less than in the European Union
The average Pole currently produces about 377 kg of municipal waste per year, or about 1.03 kg per day – 109 kg more than in 2014! Although this result is still noticeably lower than the EU average of over 500 kg per person, the amount of waste produced in Poland has increased by over 40% over the last decade.
About 53 percent collected waste goes to recycling and composting, and over 21 percent is thermally processed for energy recovery. Just over 30% still ends up in landfills. garbage – calculated by the Central Statistical Office. Due to the new regulations, prices for garbage collection have also increased – the introduction of the deposit system turned out to be a key factor.
Due to the deposit, municipalities earn less, so they increase the prices of the service. They also clean up the statistics. The best indicator of who is reluctant to pay for garbage is the water consumption meter reading.
There will be no reading without a resolution of the commune council. Only the individual counter counts
However, there are no shortcuts in this matter. The reading from the main meter in the block is not reliable. Experts from the Regional Chamber of Audit point out that the readings of the main water meter in blocks of flats often also include the flow of water used for purposes. As a result, the data may not reflect the actual number of people living in a given property and producing waste.
Only the reading of meters in individual apartments allows for a more precise connection between the amount of the fee and the actual water consumption by residents, which is the essence of the product method.
To be able to use this investigative method, municipal councils are required to specify in a resolution a detailed method of determining the water reading.
