Polish environment law, although relatively well-established, will not be recognisable in the near future due to the amendments being made to harmonise the legislation with European Union law, a prerequisite to Poland's successful accession to the Community. Poland has committed to completing the harmonisation process by the end of 2002, however, it is recognised that not all Community law obligations will be met by this time and in the fields in which this is not possible for economic or technical reasons, "harmonisation periods" may be negotiated.
At present in Parliament, there are 7 Acts of significant importance for environmental protection in Poland, namely:
- draft Act on Water Law
- draft Act on environmental impact assessment and free access to environmental information
- draft Act on environmental protection
- draft Act on waste
- draft Act on packaging and packaging waste
- draft Act on product and deposit charges
- draft Act on chemical substances and chemical preparations.
The Bill on packaging and packaging waste constitutes an attempt of partial transposition of Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste and several related Decisions of the European Commission. Other important provisions of this Directive shall be transposed in the following Acts: on environmental protection, on waste and on responsibilities of manufacturers concerning the management of certain waste and on product and deposit charges.
Directive 94/62/EC constitutes an important challenge for Poland, however, one which Poland is unable to fully confront before the hypothetical date of the Polish accession to the European Union, i.e. 1 January 2003. A transitional period until 2007 has therefore been requested. This is the deadline for many implementation activities provided for in the aforementioned Bills.
As regards the content, the Bill, in accordance with Directive 94/62/EC, covers in principle any disposable and reusable packaging made of any materials and produced in Poland or imported, as well as packaging waste.
Producers and importers of packaging have been obliged to decrease the quantity of the packaging and their harmfulness to the environment. This objective should be reached by the production of packaging which may be reused or recycled containing the least possible heavy metal content. After 2007, the total amount of lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium in packaging should not exceed 100 mg/kg. Packaging producers and importers have been obliged to label packaging to specify the type of materials used for packaging production and the potential for reuse or recycling.
For packaging waste which contains very noxious, carcinogenic, mutagenous or environmentally hazardous chemical substances, both producer and importer are obliged to impose a deposit charge, which cannot be lower than 10 per cent or higher than 30 per cent of the price of the chemical substance. In the event of return of such packaging, seller, producer and importer are obliged to refund the charge paid.
Considerable obligations have been imposed on the sellers of packaged products. Firstly, the seller has been obliged to provide information to users on available systems of return, collection, reuse and recycling of packaging and packaging waste and to explain the meaning of packaging labels. The obligation imposed on retail sellers to accept reusable packaging and packaging of hazardous chemical substances, may turn out to be a considerable burden for them. Moreover, retail commerce units with a sale area of more than 2000 m2 have been obliged to introduce a system of selective collection of packaging waste, at their own expense.
The basic requirements of Directive 94/62/EC are specific levels of recovery and recycling of packaging waste. These remain diverse for the next several years, depending on the Member State of the European Union. In the event of recovery, those levels will vary between 50 per cent and 65 per cent. For recycling, levels are set at 25 per cent 45 per cent, but they cannot be lower than 15 per cent for a given type of packaging waste. The Polish Bill provides that the recovery of packaging waste must gradually increase to rates of 50 per cent and recycling of 42 per cent by 2007.
The Bill assumes that annual levels of recovery of packaging waste will be specified by the Council of Ministers. Attaining the required levels in practice will be the task of those placing packaged products onto the Polish market. This obligation can be fulfilled through a special registered organisation, similar to the UK "Compliance Schemes", where the legal obligation is taken on by the registered organisation on behalf of the obligated company. The legislators however provided for a very important guarantee of performing the packaging waste recovery and recycling obligation: "Obligated businesses, on behalf of which the organisation acts, are jointly and severally liable with this organisation for performance of the obligation [of recovery and recycling]".
If an obligated business or organisation established to perform tasks related to recovery or recycling does not attain the recovery or recycling level anticipated for a given year, it will be obliged to pay an appropriate product charge. The amount of the product charge shall constitute the product of the charge rate and the difference between required and attained levels of recovery or recycling.
Revenues from product charges will be distributed with 60 per cent going to the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management and 40 per cent to local Funds for Environmental Protection and Water Management. Funds will be used to finance projects related to the recovery and recycling of packaging waste and ecological education in this regard.
The Bill is expected to enter into force in 2001 and although it should come as no surprise to economic sectors whose representatives have actively participated in drawing up the Bill, it may constitute a great economical and organisational challenge for the Polish economy.
Stanislaw Wajda, PhD Senior Associate CMS Cameron McKenna ul. Emilii Plater 53 00 113 Warsaw tel. +4822 520 5555 e mail: stanislaw.wajda@cms-cmck.com
