Compliance requirements in Poland
WEEE requirements
Registration timescale
30 September 2006
Registration agency
Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection
Regulations in English Regulations in Polish
Batteries requirements
Registration timescale
30 November 2008
Registration Agency
Inspectorate for Environmental Protection (GIOS).Registration, collection and recycling obligations for batteries producers
Producers of portable batteries
Producers are responsible for setting up and financing collection schemes and they must have concluded an agreement with a ‘collector’ and a battery treatment facility by 1 January 2010. Producers remain individually responsible for annual input and output reporting as well as for meeting annual collection targets. Producers must spend a minimum of 0.1% of the turnover from batteries on public awareness raising campaigns. They can do so themselves or by paying the equivalent amount to the authorities in the province where they are based. Collectors are licensed waste collection point operators, municipal waste management administrations or entities licensed to collect municipal waste. The Polish Batteries Act does not define or regulate collective systems. Existing WEEE systems, whose activities are restricted by the WEEE Act to services related to WEEE, may assume producers’ operational but not their legal responsibilities.
Producers of industrial batteries
From 12 June 2009 producers must take back non-lead industrial batteries within 30 days of request from end-users at the producer’s expense. Lead-acid accumulators must be taken back from end-users, retailers and wholesalers at the producer’s expense. Information on the manner and conditions of take-back must be enclosed with the product. Producers may enter into agreements with end-users on different financing arrangements for collection and treatment. Individual compliance is permitted with no approval required from GIOS.
Packaging requirements
Obligated parties must register and submit data based on the amount of packaging handled, to the Ministry of Environment.
The deadline for meeting recycling targets in Poland is delayed until 31 December 2014 in accordance with the amendment to the revised Directive, 2005/20/EC.
Producers and importers are obliged to achieve the specified recovery and recycling targets. These obligations can be fulfilled individually or jointly through an authorised recovery organisation.
If a producer joins an authorised recovery organisation, the obligations are passed onto this organisation. Producers and recovery organisations must register with the relevant authorities.
Individual producers or recovery organisations that do not meet the required levels of recovery and recycling must pay a product charge. The product fee is calculated separately for each type of packaging.
Thresholds
All importers, packers / fillers and producers packing articles produced by another producer and placing them on the Polish market are covered by the collection and recycling obligations of the act. There are no thresholds for companies who only handle small quantities of packaging.
Retail outlets with over 2000 sq. m are obliged to organise at their own cost collection of packaging waste after products offered for sale in the outlet, and separate the waste according to the packaging types defined in the waste legislation
Meeting the requirements
Our services help you meet your producer obligations in all member states.
For further information, please contact Aidan Turnbull
Head of WEEE, RoHS & EcoDesign on +44 (0)1225 748420
