Abstract
Thermal treatment of waste is one of the ways of their processing. It is commonly used in most developed countries of the European Union. Major by-products of the combustion processes are slag and bottom ash. In the majority of EU countries bottom ash and slag are used as a priming for road construction. In Poland slag and bottom ash from incineration process are stabilized with the addition of cement and some polymers and are landfilled as wastes. In accordance to Polish law, depending on the leaching of heavy metals from fly ash and slag after thermal treatment of waste can be regarded as both hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. At present work sequential extraction methods described in the literature: Tessier’s method, van Herck’s method and BCR method were compared experimentally with the results of using Swiss standard TVA.SA.1991 and European standard EN 12457 and total concentration of metals in sample analyzed after complete digestion of sample. The study sample was bottom ash from the medical waste incineration plant.