Summary:

Problems of correct procedure of waste handling, their economic utilization and minimizing their harmful environmental effect belong to the most important issues of natural environment protection. Poland, which entered the socio-economic structures of the European Union in May 2004 must confront this problem through adjusting its waste management legislation including also the problems of municipal waste deposition. A failure to observe the EU provisions is connected with financial penalties. Therefore the work aims to present the most important elements of development of municipal waste management history from the viewpoint of waste deposition, discuss the most important aspects of municipal waste deposition and characterize the situation of municipal waste disposal in the malopolskie province. Only one municipal waste disposal technology, i.e. deposition has been presented in the paper because this particular technology poses the gravest hazards to the natural environment and moreover currently is has been the most popular in Poland. This form of waste disposal has been ascribed a great importance, especially because of the site selection. The development and current situation of legislation on municipal waste deposition were presented. The most important issues of waste deposition were addressed, and the situation of municipal waste disposal in the malopolskie province in 1998-2005 was presented. The problem of waste disposal in the malopolskie province involves among others considerably scattered places where they originate, a great number of both regular landfills or illegal dumps or transporting wastes outside the province boundaries. Such situation does not aid an efficient implementation of the state policy. The directives of the national or provincial plan of waste management suggest a considerable decreasing the number of landfill sites. These activities must base on a scientific background and modern research and computational methods should be applied, since there are too many economic, social, environmental and even political factors which should be considered simultaneously in the waste management programmes on each level. The problem of closing down the exploited landfill sites also requires some rational solution , such as determining the order in which these should be closed down.