The Supreme Audit Office (NIK) in the report on municipal waste management in Poland leaves no illusions: we are not coping with recycling and closed-loop management.

Experts show that the system of extended producer responsibility does not work, recovery organizations are duplicating the fictitious system of municipal waste management, which is significantly losing the Polish economy, and money is left in the accounts of foreign companies introducing products in packaging to the domestic market. An additional cost from 2021 is the obligatory levy for the European Union, the so-called plastic levy. Poland will pay €800 for each ton of unprocessed waste. Many representatives of the recycling industry agree with the critical position of the NIK.

“In our opinion, most matters related to the organization of waste management are deliberately slowed down. The main reason is the lack of full knowledge about the problems and needs of the Polish recycling industry, the levels of waste generated and introduced to the Polish market, and the resulting consequences. There is also a visible lack of a government strategy in the field of municipal waste management,”  Zbigniew Trejderowski, the owner of Conkret, explained.

“We are dealing with legislative negligence dating back to 2004, i.e. Poland's accession to the EU, and the NIK report has shown the scale of these problems. Nevertheless, the last steps of the Ministry of Climate, including appointing a representative of the recycling industry to the expert group at the ministry, give some hope. It is the industry organizations that have the know-how on how to introduce regulations to properly regulate the industry. We hope that the ministry will continue the dialogue with the broadly understood recycling industry, which will contribute to environmental protection and healing of the industry. Everyone is irritated by the rubbish in forests and on the streets, but it is the most irritating to us, recyclers because valuable recyclable materials pollute Poland instead of returning to the market,” Szymon Dziak-Czekan, president of the “Polish Recycling” Association.

(PAP)