Automotive afterlife

Firms importing cars to Poland may soon face legislative and financial difficulties, due to a recycling law enacted in January 2006. According to the law, each company that imports more than 1,000 cars annually must also either own or contract with a network of recycling stations. The network needs to cover 100 percent of the country and the distance between two stations cannot be greater than 50 kilometers.

Should a firm not fulfill this obligation, it will need to pay the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW) zł.500 for each car imported to Poland. According to an estimate by the Polish Automotive Industry Association (PZPM), the car import industry would have to pay a cumulative fine of zł.120 million for failing to meet the requirement.

Car importers were given a little more than a year to prepare their networks. They have done this, whether by creating their own or signing contracts with existing recycling plants, but in some sparsely populated parts of Poland such as Bieszczady, there are no recycling plants.

"It is impossible to cover the whole country," claims Jakub Faryś, the president of PZPM. "We understand that the aim of this act is to create a network of car-collection plants. Now there is not a company whose network covers less than 95 percent of Poland, so we think this aim has been met," he said.

Adam Małyszko, the president of the Forum for Automotive Recycling Association (FORS), also confirms that the 464 domestic recycling plants cannot cover all of Poland. He also points out another problem: "Contracts prepared by car companies were not attractive for recycling stations. Car companies imposed extra obligations, for example the destruction of trademarks, which are not profitable for us," says Małyszko.

Car-import companies have until the end of March to meet the requirements.