The entry into force of the amendment to the deposit system, which according to the assumptions is to take place from the beginning of 2025, does not seem possible – warns the Government Legislation Centre. The RCL argues that the reason is the current stage of work on the draft act and the obligation to notify it to the European Commission.
The Government Legislation Centre (RCL) points out that “taking into account the current stage of work on the project and the obligation to notify the project in question to the European Commission (…) the entry into force of the proposed amendments to the Act before 31 December 2024 does not seem possible” – RCL said in its opinion on the draft act amending the Act on the management of packaging and packaging waste and certain other acts.
According to the draft amendment to the act on the management of packaging and packaging waste, the deposit system in Poland is to start operating from the beginning of 2025. Its aim is to reduce the amount of mixed municipal waste collected by municipalities and increase the level of recycling. Large stores, with an area of over 200 square meters, will have to collect empty packaging and return a deposit. Smaller stores, on the other hand, will charge a deposit, but joining the packaging collection system will be voluntary in their case.
New deposit system from 2025
The uncollected deposit will be used to finance the deposit system. The deposit is to encourage the return of packaging and increase the amount of reused and recycled raw materials used to produce packaging. The system is to cover three types of packaging: plastic bottles up to 3 liters, reusable glass bottles up to 1.5 liters and metal cans up to 1 liter.
The amendment, which was introduced to the project in July this year, assumes, among other things, the exclusion of the obligation to collect milk and dairy product packaging within the system, the obligation to accept such packaging by retail outlets with an area of less than 200 square meters if the entity sells beverages in such bottles, and the creation of a so-called closed deposit circulation system.
Previously, it was assumed that these packages would be covered by the deposit system with a one-year delay, i.e. in 2026. In mid-June this year, Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment Anita Sowińska announced that this type of packaging would be excluded from the system at the request of the industry, and the most important argument in favor of this postulate was the “sanitary issue”.
The Act also postpones some deadlines for deposit system operators.
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