Abstract
One of the crucial reasons of the system changes of waste management in our legal system in Poland was a need to implement solutions and mechanisms that are applied in the European Union. At the European Union law level, a Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives constitutes a basic legal document described in this part of the article. The essential idea of the quoted directive is creating legal measures, promotion of eliminating waste production and treating it as a source instead. Achievement of these assumptions requires providing segregation at source and recycling of the main waste streams above all. It is necessary to encourage this action and support the reuse of products and waste utilization. Indicated international legal instruments are of primary importance for internal rules, which shall be constructed in a way that enables the achievement of goals determined by the EU law. Legal-organizational internal systems associated with the management of waste have undergone substantial changes from 2010. National legal provisions will be presented in the second part of the article.