Accidents of waste fires in Georgia with the background of existing challenges in the field of waste management

Abstract

The aim of the presented work is to study the cases of waste fires with the background of challenges in the field of waste management on the example of a developing country like Georgia, which took all the obligations to perform all EU requirement under the Georgian - EU Association Agreement of 2014.
The field of waste management is developing when the share of source-separated waste and the number of processing enterprises are increasing. At this time, the cases of waste fires are increasing in Georgia. There are 100 companies for the processing of various wastes and about 100 companies registered for waste collection/transportation activities, which is 3-4 times more to compare the data of 2010. The total number of fires in 2015-2019 increased compared to 2010, which coincides with the increase of planned activities in the waste management sector until 2015, especially increased fires with "unknown causes" and "other causes”, which significant share coincides with waste disposal - storage, as well as flammable and explosive substances use.
A review of waste fire cases in the past four years has shown that the majority of them are related to plastics waste and used tires that have been improperly placed or stored, while not taking into account the dangers of interactions with other materials (for example, varnishes and paints).