Relationship Between Environmental Changes and Waste Management Policies on the Formation of the Quality of Life in Poland. A Regional Approach

Map 1.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Diagnostic variables describing the quality of life, waste management, and ecology and the environment in counties in Poland

	Variable	Jednostki	D/S
	Ecology and tde environment
X1	Share of forest area in total area	%	S
X2	Share of legally protected areas in total area	%	S
X3	Share of green areas in total area	%	S
X4	Wastewater treated per year	dam3/km2	S
X5	Industrial and municipal wastewater treated	%	S
X6	Population using wastewater treatment plants	%	S
X7	Mixed waste collected during the year	kg per capita	D
X8	Share of recycled waste in waste volume	%	S
X9	Share of industry in water consumption	%	D
	Waste management
Y1	Expenditures on utilities and environmental protection	PLN per capita	S
Y2	Waste generated during the year	thousand tons per 1,000 population	D
Y3	Waste recovered	thousand tons per 1,000 population	S
Y4	Waste disposed of	thousand tons per 1,000 population	S
Y5	Share of recovered waste in the amount of waste	%	S
Y6	Mixed waste collected during the year	kg per capita	D
Y7	Area of wild dumps	pieces per 100 km2	D
Y8	Municipal waste collected during liquidation of wild dumps	tons per 100 km2	D
	Quality of life
Z1	Share of local tax income in total counties’ own income	%	S
Z2	Share of PIT and CIT tax income in total income	%	S
Z3	Share of property expenditures to total expenditures	%	S
Z4	Expenditures on housing management	PLN per capita	S
Z5	Expenditures on education and upbringing	PLN per capita	S
Z6	Expenditures on health care	PLN per capita	S
Z7	Expenditures on public safety and fire protection	PLN per capita	S
Z8	Expenditures on public administration	PLN per capita	S
Z9	Expenditures on transport and communications	PLN per capita	S
Z10	Expenditures on municipal management and environmental protection	PLN per capita	S
Z11	Housing	pieces per 1,000 population	S
Z12	Distribution network – water supply	km per km2	S
Z13	Distribution network – sewerage	km per km2	S
Z14	Distribution network – gas	km per km2	S
Z15	Migration balance in total	person per 1,000 population	S
Z16	Old-age dependency ratio	%	D
Z17	Birth rate	person per 1,000 population	S
Z18	Outpatient entities (as of December 31)	facility per 10,000 population	S
Z19	Population per community pharmacy	person per pharmacy	S
Z20	Beneficiaries of community social assistance	person per 10,000 population	D
Z21	Foundations, associations, and social organizations	facility per 1,000 population	S
Z22	Entities registered	facility per 1,000 population	S
Z23	Natural persons engaged in business activity	person per 1,000 population	S
Z24	Registered unemployed	person per 1,000 population	D
Z25	Employed	person per 1,000 population	S
Z26	Forest land area	ha per 100 ha	S
Z27	Legally protected areas	ha per 100 ha	S
Z28	Wastewater treated per year	%	S
Z29	Waste generated during the year	thousand tons per km2	D
Z30	Share of recycled waste in the amount of waste generated	%	S
Z31	Population using wastewater treatment plants	%	S
Z32	Emission of gaseous pollutants	tons per km2	D
Z33	Public libraries	facility per 10,000 population	S
Z34	Hard-surfaced municipal and county roads	km per km2	S
Z35	Municipal and county roads with a dirt surface	km per km2	S
Z36	Share of parks, greens, and residential green areas in total area	%	S

Selected characteristics of synthetic measures of quality of life, ecology and environment, waste management of counties in Poland in 2010, 2018, 2019, and 2020

Year	Mean	Median	Minimum	Maximum	Range	Quartile (range)	Standard deviation	Coefficient of variation	Skewness	Gini coefficient	Kurtosis
q Quality of life
2010	0.36	0.36	0.29	0.50	0.21	0.03	0.03	7.16	1.13	0.044	3.43
2018	0.37	0.37	0.31	0.51	0.20	0.03	0.03	7.64	1.16	0.047	2.59
2019	0.37	0.37	0.31	0.52	0.21	0.03	0.03	7.70	1.33	0.046	3.43
2020	0.37	0.37	0.32	0.51	0.19	0.03	0.03	7.43	1.32	0.045	3.32
q Ecology and environment
2010	0.49	0.49	0.36	0.60	0.24	0.04	0.04	8.04	-0.26	0.050	0.56
2018	0.45	0.44	0.34	0.63	0.29	0.06	0.04	9.47	0.51	0.058	1.18
2019	0.45	0.44	0.33	0.64	0.31	0.05	0.04	9.12	0.60	0.056	1.92
2020	0.45	0.45	0.32	0.64	0.32	0.06	0.04	9.57	0.45	0.059	1.39
q Waste management
2010	0.52	0.53	0.43	0.61	0.18	0.03	0.03	5.18	-0.87	0.034	0.85
2018	0.48	0.48	0.38	0.56	0.18	0.03	0.03	5.24	0.50	0.034	1.46
2019	0.48	0.48	0.38	0.55	0.17	0.03	0.02	4.64	0.28	0.031	2.33
2020	0.48	0.48	0.39	0.55	0.16	0.02	0.03	5.21	0.32	0.034	1.86