Municipalities struggle as 55% recycling requirement for 2025 remains despite EU agreement on lower threshold.
Current Recycling Requirements
Polish municipalities have long struggled to achieve the legal requirements for preparing municipal waste for reuse and recycling. In recent years, these levels rose by 5 percentage points annually, reaching 45% in 2024. However, under current regulations, municipalities should already achieve 55% for 2025.
Anita Sowińska, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Climate and Environment (MKiŚ), informed in August last year that the European Commission had agreed to lower this indicator to 50%. To date, however, the recycling level has not been changed. The government assures it will do so but has not specified when.
Reporting Requirements and Penalties
Municipalities must calculate and report their recycling levels by the end of March this year. By the end of January, they receive information from waste collection entities about the mass of waste prepared for reuse and recycling. Subsequently, by the end of March, local leaders submit their reports to the provincial marshal and the provincial inspectorate of environmental protection.
Failure to achieve the recycling target can result in penalties for municipalities. However, penalties for the years 2024-2025 have been relaxed due to the September 2024 flood disaster, with complete exemptions for areas affected by the flood and 50% reductions for other areas.
Future Regulatory Changes
The Ministry of Climate and Environment insists that it is working on changing the recycling indicator for 2025 for municipalities as well. In September during the VII Municipal Waste Management Forum, Marek Goleń, Director of the Waste Management Department at MKiŚ, argued that changes needed to be made quickly because many municipalities faced penalties.
The Ministry now indicates that changes to the required recycling levels for 2025-2029 will be included in the draft UC100 law (on packaging and packaging waste). However, there is no timeline for when this will happen, and most importantly, whether the amendment will be passed before municipalities submit their 2025 reports.
The timeline for enacting UC100 depends on many factors, including positions of various stakeholders, processing of submitted comments, and the dynamics of parliamentary work. The MKiŚ is making every effort to get the law passed as quickly as possible, but the legislative process involves factors beyond the Ministry’s control.
