Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) was implemented by Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste. Its aim is to strengthen waste prevention, reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery. It provides for the introduction of rules imposing extended producer responsibility on all product manufacturers1 by Member States. This means that producers bear financial and organisational responsibility for the waste generated by their products. 

At the moment, in Poland the EPR applies to packaging made of, among others, plastics, metal, glass and paper, which should be created in a more sustainable way, i.e. enabling, among others, the multiple use, recyclable and containing a certain level of sourced materials. Entities marketing packaged products are therefore required to pay a product fee and, if the required packaging waste recycling levels are not achieved, they may be held accountable in the form of financial penalties. 

In addition, the EPR requires the organisation of collection and recycling systems for waste generated from packaging, which takes place in cooperation with Packaging Recovery Organisations (PROs). These organisations work on behalf of producers and help them to fulfil their tasks arising from the legislation. 

A new EPR model for packaging is currently under development at the Ministry of Climate and Environment. Its aim is to take into account the new EU regulations and the bail system to become effective on 1 October 2025. So far, only the assumptions of the new Act have been presented, the adoption of which is announced still in 2025, with its provisions already partly in force starting from the next year. It shall include mechanisms to ensure even more efficient management of packaging waste and increase recycling rates, thereby mitigating its negative impact on the environment. The regulation will take into account all packaging, both on the shop shelves as well as bulk and industrial packaging and in the future also other products, such as textiles. 

The state National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW) shall become the operator of the system responsible for collecting the fees, thus replacing the Packaging Recovery Organisations (PROs). At this point it is unclear how the role of PROs will develop in the new system, but it is highly likely that they will be marginalised or even eliminated from the market. 

In addition, moving away from the DPR (document confirming the recycling of packaging waste) system is planned in favour of acquiring such data from the BDO (Waste Database). The data shall be collected even more extensively. This change is justified by the problem of document counterfeiting and excessively low rates that did not cover the costs of packaging recycling. However, at this point the BDO does not offer the functionality enabling reliable and effective monitoring of the waste market in this respect. The existing fee paid to the PROs for the acquisition of Recycling Confirmation Document (RCD) will be completely replaced by a packaging fee passed on to the system operator. The Ministry announces that some of the funds raised by the NFOŚiGW will be used to support local authorities, waste sorting plants and recyclers. 

The assumptions presented for the new EPR model are quite controversial from both an economic and legal point of view. The Packaging Recovery Organisations which have been operating in the market for nearly 25 years argue that the centralisation of the system, which will lead to their closure, could be perceived as a form of nationalisation. This raises major doubts concerning the compatibility of the proposed solutions with the principles of social market economy and the protection of acquired rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The elimination of the PROs from the waste management system will undermine years of experience in the sector, as well as jeopardise tested collection and recycling mechanisms, directly contributing to a decline in the efficiency of raw material recovery. At the same time, replacing the current system by introducing a top-down levy independent of the efficiency of collection and recycling may, in fact, mean a new tax that will not guarantee an improvement in the efficiency of waste management, but will only increase the burden on consumers. Furthermore, there will be no effective supervision to ensure that sufficient quantities of recycled raw materials are collected and that the funds raised actually reach the entities involved in the recycling process. All the changes proposed create a high risk of system inefficiency, making it impossible to assess whether the required waste recycling levels have been achieved. At the same time, they contribute to the failure to meet the environmental targets and expose the State to potential penalties related to non-compliance with EU obligations. 

The new Extended Producer Responsibility model will only be comprehensively presented in the draft Act of Law. At the moment, the exact date of publication of the draft EPR Act is unknown. 

[1] A natural or legal person who professionally develops, manufactures, processes, treats, sells or imports products.