Amendment to the Waste Act of 17 November 2021: implementing the circular economy package, biowaste and EPR

The Journal of Laws published on 26 November 2021 the act of 17 November 2021 amending the Waste Act and certain other acts (item 2151). It is the main act implementing into Polish law the changes to the Waste Framework Directive from the 2018 circular economy package, whose transposition deadline expired on 5 July 2020. The provisions enter into force as a rule on 1 January 2022, with some on 1 January 2025.

Key changes

Of the solutions listed in the act, the following are important for our compendium:

• definitions – biowaste includes garden, food and kitchen waste from households, catering, retail and similar sources; new definitions concern, among others, construction and demolition waste, food waste, material recovery and extended producer responsibility;
• waste prevention – a national waste prevention programme and a food waste prevention programme, and annual reports;
• EPR – producers bearing costs must differentiate fees according to durability, reparability, recyclability and content of hazardous substances; costs may not exceed the costs necessary to provide the services;
• construction waste – an obligation to collect fractions separately;
• thermal treatment – separately collected waste intended for reuse or recycling may, as a rule, not be subjected to such processes, except where this gives the best environmental outcome;
• BDO – extended reporting obligations, including data on food waste, and a greater role for the Database on products and packaging and on waste management (BDO);
• packaging – changes to the Act on packaging management: clarification of recycling, levels to 2030 and producer fees.

Significance for biowaste and biogas plants

Defining biowaste in line with the directive and banning the sending of separately collected streams to incineration strengthen the case for biological processing, including digestion. For municipalities this means the need to plan collection and installations, and for waste-processing biogas plants – a chance of more stable deliveries of waste from separate collection, provided the quality and gate fees are right.

Extended producer responsibility in this act takes the form of general rules – a detailed system for different streams requires separate regulations.

What next

Implementing regulations and acts on packaging and EPR remained to be drawn up. For businesses and local authorities, what mattered was preparing for the new reporting obligations and fee changes, and for investors in waste management – assessing how the new definitions would affect the status of waste and by-products.

Practical significance

For businesses managing waste, the most important thing is to update internal procedures: records, codes, reporting and agreements with recipients. For municipalities – adapting regulations and separate collection systems to the new definitions and levels. The act does not complete work on the extended producer responsibility system, which required separate regulations, but creates a general framework for it.