Within a closed-loop supply chain, entrepreneurs face the problem of proper waste management, both for waste generated on their premises and for waste resulting from the packaging of products they have placed on the market. The group of packaging waste for which an entrepreneur is responsible arises as a result of consumption, i.e., after the delivery of a good or service to the customer, which makes managing such dispersed waste a real logistical challenge.
Who is subject to statutory obligations
Poland’s membership in the European Union has forced many changes in legal acts concerning, among other things, environmental protection, adjusting the requirements contained therein to the standards applicable in the EU. In this way, entrepreneurs placing products in packaging on the market were obliged under the Act of May 11, 2001, on the obligations of entrepreneurs regarding the management of certain waste and on the product fee and deposit fee (Journal of Laws of 2001, No. 63, item 639, as amended) to ensure a specific level of recovery and recycling.
The provisions of the Act apply to:
Which packaging is subject to statutory obligations
In light of the current legal status, supply chain entities responsible for placing a product in packaging on the market are also obliged to ensure the recovery and recycling of packaging waste resulting from the consumption of their goods. In individual groups of packaging and in individual periods, there are different requirements regarding the levels of recovery and recycling (Fig. 1).
As can be seen in the chart, the levels of required recovery and recycling are increasing year by year, to match the levels applicable in the former EU-15 countries after 2014. Over the more than four years that the Act has been in force, its subject and entity scope have undergone significant changes. In previous years, there were reliefs and exemptions in the fulfillment of this obligation for small and medium-sized enterprises or sheltered workshops. The same was true for the subject scope of the Act. The PKWiU symbols introduced in the first year of the Act’s validity significantly limited the mass of packaging that was subject to recycling. At present, most of the reliefs have been abolished. Moreover, there are plans to increase the burden on entrepreneurs. It is worth mentioning here, for example, the re-inclusion of wooden pallets in the recycling obligation starting from 2008.
In 2006, the obligation to recover wooden pallets was a surprise for many entrepreneurs and remains so for many. A similar situation occurs regarding the recycling of advertising materials. During 2005, there were two amendments to the Act in question, the first of which introduced the obligation to ensure the recycling of advertising materials. Appropriate regulations were enacted in this regard, and then, with another amendment, these obligations were removed, leaving the provisions in the regulation as dead provisions (Regulation on annual recycling levels (Journal of Laws of 2005, No.
103, item 872), Regulation on product fee rates (Journal of Laws of 2005, No. 157, item 1325).
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” No. 2/2006.