Recycling of Asbestos-Cement Waste – An Opportunity or a Threat?

Asbestos-cement waste from roof coverings and facades are classified as hazardous materials and should be successively removed from buildings. The current management of these wastes is limited to their controlled depositing in landfills, which does not ultimately solve the problem of their impact on the environment in the future. The article presents the current state of disposal of asbestos in Poland, with particular emphasis on the Silesian Voivodeship. The literature reports on the methods of neutralizing this type of waste and the possibility of their recycling were analyzed. It was found that the most popular way of recycling asbestos waste is thermal treatment, and the least effective - chemical treatment. Unfortunately, legal barriers prevent the spread of these solutions in the country in practice, despite the fact that safe methods of recycling asbestos-cement products are known.