1 PLN for waste, plus free water and gas. This is no joke; that's how it is in Poland.

• In the Lubartów commune, some residents pay PLN 1 per month for waste collection.
• There's no reason to be jealous, though. This exceptional rate is due to a specific reason.
• The Rokitno landfill receives waste from municipalities within the association, as well as from Lublin. Residents of Rokitno and neighboring towns also receive other benefits.

Waste collection fees are rising, exceeding PLN 40 per person in many municipalities. However, in some areas, the fee is nominal. In the Lubartów municipality, residents of Rokitno, Wólka Rokicka, Wólka Rokicka Kolonia, Baranówka, Trzciniec, and Wandzin pay PLN 1 per household per month.

There's no reason to be jealous, though. This exceptional rate is due to a specific reason.

- This is a form of compensation for residents for the inconvenience resulting from living next to a waste disposal site - says Ewa Badyoczek-Brzyska, director of the Office of the Union of Municipalities of the Lubartów Region.

As the director says, the remaining municipalities belonging to the association have agreed to this form of compensation for residents: - Of course, we pay extra for it, but such relief is nothing exceptional, it is also applied in similar cases in other municipalities.

The Rokitno landfill receives waste from municipalities within the association, as well as from Lublin. Rokitno residents also receive other benefits.

A few years ago, in exchange for consent to build another basin, Lublin committed to, among other things, building a swimming pool for the school in Wólka Rokicka, covering 80 percent of the costs of building a gas pipeline to Wandzin and Trzciniec, widening the road from Rokitno to Niemiec, and building a sidewalk in Rokitno.

The list of benefits also includes free water - 100 liters per person per day , for the residents of Rokitno, Wólka Rokicka, Wólka Rokicka-Kolonia, Baranówka, Wandzin and Trzciniec, along with free sewage collection and reimbursement of gas costs (50 cubic meters per month per family).

It should be added that not everyone is happy with living next to the landfill - in the surrounding municipalities there have been protests from residents against its expansion or odor nuisance.

The Rokitno Landfill is owned by the Lublin Municipality. Since its inception in the fall of 1994, it has been administered and currently managed by the Municipal Water and Sewage Company in Lublin. The area designated for the storage of non-hazardous and non-inert waste is over 38 hectares. Over the years, millions of cubic meters of waste have been disposed of in landfills.