Material flow analysis of glass packaging waste in the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Accelerated population growth and economic development cause an increase in the consumption of material goods and an increase in the generated amount of municipal waste. Glass amounts to 5% of total generated waste worldwide. Millions of glass waste pose serious environmental problems every year, which primarily arise due to unharmonized glass waste flows. This paper aims to quantitatively and qualitatively investigate the system of glass packaging waste management in the Republic of Serbia, using the material flow analysis (abbr. MFA) since glass packaging makes up to 85% of the total generated glass waste.