The waste management first came to InnoSchool attention when screening territory of Republic of Moldova during the desk-research on our new Learning System definition (InnoSchool).

 Waste management is one of the difficult issues of the Republic of Moldova. The worsening of the matter of waste, and especially that related to solid household waste, is caused by the inefficient way the waste processing stages are held. In the rural areas, no services of waste management exist in most settlements; therefore, the transportation of waste to the waste storage places is performed personally by the generators except for waste collection services established in some of the rural areas. The number of persons from the rural areas who use these services is relatively low because of the lack of financial sources. A small part of the rural settlements, namely those situated near by district centers, are serviced by special waste management entities. Another aspect of the inefficient waste management is that many recycling and useful materials are stored together with the non-recyclable waste, therefore a great part of their useful potential is lost (paper, glass, metals, plastic materials); being mixed and contaminated from chemical and biological point of view their recovery is troublesome.

A research of the International Bank shows that along with the increase of the level of income of the population, the rate of waste generation per capita increases as well, which in rural areas usually is 0.3-0.4 kg/ capita/day and 0.9 kg/ capita/ day or higher in urban areas.

The inadequate management of waste from the country has a negative impact on:

a) the development of agriculture, as a result of using the soil for waste storage, while this land could be used for agricultural activities;

b) the development of tourism, as a result of a damaged image of the country associated with a waste storage facility and the unpleasant smell emanated from these facilities;

c) the public health, as a result of unsanitary conditions of the waste storage facilities and the probability of becoming a plague spot.

Entrepreneurship could play an important role through the potential for activities related to collecting, transportation, waste treatment, recovery and disposal, like creating new jobs through preparation and use of materials for recycling. Other possibilities are related to improving the supply for external exchange through recycling materials export; bringing forward the agricultural productivity by producing compost under the quality criteria; contributing to the local energy security by recovering the energy from waste; offering new income sources from the actions of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the devolution of waste.

The awareness and public participation are critical to perform and support waste management at national and regional levels. Despite the increasing complexity of waste issues and changes in waste treatment systems, all the waste management strategies necessarily require the involvement of households, businesses and civil society in a broad public consultation to reach strategic goals. From our point of view, these goals can be meet through the InnoSchool learning system by raising awareness on environmental issues like waste management.