Waste Management in Public Educational Institutions of Bucharest City, Romania

The educational institutions represent the main components of sustainability promotion in our society. Waste management is one of the challenges that educational institutions have to face in accomplishing sustainability goals. In Bucharest, 457 educational institutions (pre-schools, primary and secondary schools, high schools, special schools) were analyzed using questionnaires. Questionnaires included items related with waste management inside the educational institutions: quantities, collection system characteristics (schedule, selective collection presence, temporary depositing place), responsible for management and influencing factors (total built surface, number of students and educational staff). The results show that most of educational institutions have deficiencies regarding waste management: 47% of the respondents don’t have sufficient information about the generated waste quantities and 49% don’t have waste selective collection systems implemented. Waste quantities generated in educational institutions does not depend on the number of students and the total built surface, but is influenced by the educational institution type. The findings illustrate the difficulty to promote realistic sustainable development actions plans without major changes in public educational institutions from Bucharest.