B. GAJDZIK ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS, STRATEGIES AND WASTE LOGISTIC SYSTEM BASED ON THE EXAMPLE OF METALLURGICAL COMPANY Received – Prispjelo: 2008-02-08 Accepted – Prihva}eno: 2008-04-15 Review paper – Pregledni rad INTRODUCTION The environmental management appeared in the late first half of the 20th century. The term of environmental management mainly refers to an environmental man- agement system integrated with the general manage- ment system. The Environmental Management System comprises an organisational structure, planning, respon- sibilities, rules of proceeding, procedures, processes and measures used to develop, implement, analyse and maintain the environmental policy [1]. The structure of environmental management is presented in the interna- tional standard ISO 14001. The environment manage- ment tends towards eliminating negative impact (pollu- tion prevention). It is based on the analysis of environ- mental aspects and their influence on the environment. An analysis of environmental aspects helps to solve en- vironmental problems of steel smelting companies by realizing the environmental strategy. A strategy is a con- sistent concept of action, the implementation of which is to guarantee that fundamental long-term goals relating to a given area, e.g. environmental protection, are achieved. The planning document called "environmen- tal strategy" refers to other internal documents and sys- tems of companies, including an investment plan and waste logistic system. ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS An environmental aspect is an element of an organi- sation’s activities, its products or services that can inter- act with the environment, whereas a significant environ- mental aspect is one that has or might have a significant impact on the environment [1]. An impact on the envi- ronment, on the other hand, has been defined as ’any change to the environment, both positive and negative, that is caused fully or partly by an organisation's activi- ties, products or services’ [1]. According to the principles of environmental man- agement a company should systematically carry out ac- tions that enable it to identify environmental aspects, evaluate their impact on the environment, define the scope of the impact and use the information while set- ting its environmental strategy. Prior to the analysis of environmental aspects, they need to be identified and then presented in the form of the so-called environmen- tal aspect table. The process comprises the following stages (below, the steel plant example): METALURGIJA 48 (2009) 1, 63-67 63 The aim of this article is to present the key elements of environmental management system in metallurgical companies. This companies in use the Cleaner Production Strategy. All modern strategies are based on dynamic environmental model. Production processes still create waste and pollution although a significant amount is now recycled. For example in metallurgical companies located in the Polish market about 80% of solid waste is recycled. The minimization or complete removal of damages caused by metallurgical production are a neces- sary and important aspect of maintaining a competitive edge. Key words: environmental aspects, metallurgical company, waste logistic system, recycling Aspekt okoli{a, strategija i logisti~ki sustav otpada utemeljen na primjeru metalur{ke tvrtke. Cilj ~lanka dati je klju~ne elemente u sustavu menad`menta okoli{a u metalur{kim tvrtkama. Ove tvrtke rabe ~istu Proizvodnu Strategiju. Sve moderne strategije se temelje na dinami~nom modelu okoli{a. Proizvodni proces uvijek daje otpad i one~i{}enja, koja se sada u zna~ajnoj mjeri recikliraju. Npr. u metalur{kim tvrtkama u Poljskoj oko 80% ~vrstog otpada se reciklira. Minimalizacija ili cijelovito odstranjivanje opasnosti uzrokovane meta- lur{kim procesima je va`an i neophodan aspekt odr`avanja konkurentnosti. Klju~ne rije~i: aspekt okoli{a, metalur{ka tvrtka, logisti~ki sustav otpada, recikliranje ISSN 0543-5846 METABK 48(1) 63-67 (2009) UDC – UDK 502.5:669(438):669.013.5(438):628.5:389.64=111 Bo`ena Gajdzik, Faculty of Science and Metallurgy, The Silesian Univer- sity of Technology, Katowice, Poland