Instead of utilizing, they sell to Poland. They earn a lot on old panels from Germany

Over two years ago, a regulation was issued in unclear circumstances that changed the rules of playing in the waste industry. This caused that bringing old panels from Germany to Poland became a vein of gold. As the journalist of “Supervisor” Filip Folczak, shortly after the release of the regulation, one of the officials who dealt with the subject of electro -waste for years began working in a company that wanted to change the regulations.

A boom has been going on in Poland for several years Photovoltaic panelsEvery year, hundreds of thousands of tons of panels go to the roofs and fields, and in the last several months old panels from abroad have begun to come to our country, which instead of getting to utilization, are sold at very low prices, and even given away for free.

Reporters of “Supervisor”, wanting to learn the backstage of this interest, pretended to be businessmen who plan to invest a lot of money in a rotation of old solar farm.

See the whole report of Filip Folczak “Millions on old German photovoltaics”

Germany is a European tycoon when it comes to obtaining energy from the sun. The first installations began to be built there over 20 years ago. During a conversation with sellers, journalists find out that they specialize in so -called repivers. – Our contract is that we (panels – ed.) We take and put new ones. They get rid of problems, and we have this problem in Poland – explains one of them.

Both entrepreneurs confirm that old German panels, instead of utilization, go to Poland and are sold in a very large number.

By replacing old panels with new ones, you can generate up to several dozen percent more energy. Instead of paying for the utilization of old photovoltaics, German entrepreneurs sell it abroad and earn on waste. The devices are functional in theory, but after many years of work they are much less efficient and technologically outdated.

Professor Barbara Tora from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow explains that currently the installation costs about PLN 16-20 thousand. – If we take used panels in this place, which will cost two thousand zlotys, the benefit is gigantic – he points out.

In Poland, there is no large -scale solar -socking plant. According to the law, every citizen can completely freely give used panels to the selective waste collection point. The local government pays for utilization.

– The mass of panels installed on roofs and photovoltaic farms is a million tons – informs Professor Tora and indicates that we do not have installations in Poland that could be so many now.

A surprising regulation

EU applause clearly defines the law for the waste industry. The system consists in the fact that every person buying electronics or household appliances immediately pays for the fact that one day this equipment will break down. When the new equipment goes to the market, old and broken devices are collected in the form of electro -waste. According to the law, the process is coordinated by recovery organizations – it is enterprises that rotate tens of millions of zlotys, mediate between producers and waste companies that collect used equipment from the market. – 65 percent of the mass introduced to the market should be collected and processed from this market – explains Mirosław Biaściuk, managing director of e -waste recycling.

The panels are in the same group of electro -waste as washing machines and stoves. This means that recovery organizations can complete limits for panels with other equipment from the same group. For many months, recovery organizations took money from companies introducing panels, although they knew that there would be a problem with acquiring the necessary electro -waste. Then they raised the alarm in the media, demanding a change in law, to those that released them from their obligations.

Although recovery organizations do not talk about it, there is a way out. When you can't take the right number of electro -waste from the market, you can pay a product fee to the state coffers. The organization calls this fee punishment and tribute.

To the surprise of experts, on December 21, 2022, the ordinance of the Minister of the Climate and the Environment on the method and the detailed method of calculating the minimum annual level of collecting used electrical and electronic equipment.

See the content of the regulation

According to the new law, the amount of weight that needs to be recovered fell from 65 percent to 0.0005 percent (1300 times). Earlier, each ton of solar -made ton obliged 650 kilograms of electro -waste to collect. After changing the law, only half a kilo had to be recovered.

Paweł S. changes work

Reporters of “Supervisor” wanted to find out whether Wojciech Konecki, the Vice President of the National Chamber of Commerce and the President of the Association of Employers of the Household apprenticeship had an impact on the ordinance. Konecki confirmed that he personally sought to change the law regarding photovoltaics, but after recording he did not agree to the publication of the statement

Reporters also wanted to determine who was responsible for such a radical change in the Law in the Ministry of Climate and Environment. The president of one of the recovery organizations pointed out that it was Paweł S., a former head of the utility waste department – a unit of the ministry, which deals with the topic of electrical tracks and product fees.

The draft regulation appeared in September 2022 and immediately assumed that the law would work back. Less than three months later, Paweł S. becomes the representative of the Board for Environmental Regulation in one of the recovery organizations.

The official leaves after almost 20 years of work in the ministry to one of the companies, which depended on a controversial change of law. Mirosław Biaściuk believes that the company in which Paweł S. started work gained on the regulation.

Robert Ch. refuses to interview

Reporters of “Supervisor” also reached a person associated with a large recovery organization. – The topic is megisty and you feel that something was wrong for a kilometer – says the interlocutor. When asked about Paweł S., he says that “it was a permanent element of the department.” – The directors changed and he was always. Someone had to pat him in substance – he adds.

It was supposed to be Robert Ch., Who came to the ministry in the spring of 2022. Earlier he was the deputy head of Polish waters. – This is a person who is to watch over the interests in the climate ministry, in the waste industry – explains the entrepreneur, explaining that the director of the Department of Waste Management of the Ministry of the Climate and Environment was the protected deputy minister Jacek Jacek decorations.

The reporter of “Supervisor” made an appointment with Paweł S. at the headquarters of TVN24, but half an hour before the meeting the former official dismissed them. Robert Ch. Jacek Ozdoba argues that he does not remember this matter and also refuses to interview the camera.

“I did not prepare this regulation”

While working on reportage, journalists of “Supervisor” contacted the presidents of several recovery organizations in Poland, each of them declared that he did not earn on changing the law, but during the conversations they suggested that they earned competitors.

After the interview was canceled, Paweł S. did not respond to the phones of “Supervisor” journalists. In order to ask him questions about the regulation, the reporter Filip Folczak claimed to be an entrepreneur and arranged for business consultation.

– I no longer prepared this regulation. I only remember the first work on the regulation that proposals for changing these statutory provisions were submitted at various meetings – said Paweł S. – As legislative work is carried out, the decisions are made by the director and minister. At that time, the director was Robert Ch. he added.

Robert Ch. After the parliamentary election in 2023, he ceased to perform a director's function and left the Ministry of the Climate and the Environment.