MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE GENERATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH ANALYSIS FOR THE YEARS 2000-2013 IN ROMANIA, BULGARIA, SLOVENIA AND GREECE

This paper presents the results of the analysis of the relation between waste management and economic situation for the years 2000-2013 in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Greece. In particular, the interest of the present study focuses on the "decoupling principle" which falls within the EU policies. The population growth, the gross domestic product and the municipal solid waste generation constitute the basic indicators used. These indicators are integrated into one, the municipal waste intension (MWT) indicator, allowing for easy comparison between the countries and simplifying data analysis. In general terms, it can be stated that there is a decoupling of waste generation and economic growth in all countries as well as in EU-27 on average. Greece seems to follow the EU-27 average, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria show similar patterns with Bulgaria to show a sharper and larger decrease of the MWI indicator.