Warning about price increases. An incorrectly implemented ROP system can mean a lot of trouble

• The Ministry of Climate and Environment proposes entrusting the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management with the tasks of the producer responsibility organization, which will implement the obligations arising from the EPR on behalf of producers.
• Voices of opposition to the introduction of EPR in the form proposed by the ministry are most often heard among representatives of companies introducing packaged products to the market and packaging recovery organizations.
• The model proposed by the Ministry of Climate and Environment is similar to the one in force in Croatia and Hungary.

The Ministry of Climate and Environment proposes entrusting the NFOŚiGW with the tasks of the producer responsibility organization, which will implement the obligations resulting from the EPR on behalf of producers within the framework of a closed financial circuit. Representatives of the Polish Federation of Food Producers and the waste recovery sector warn that this may make it difficult for Poland to meet EU requirements for selective waste collection, and consequently, may be associated with penalties and, consequently, with price increases.

The proposal of the Ministry of Climate is to a large extent a very simple proposal, because it aims to ensure that the industry that is supposed to implement its responsibility will not implement it, but will simply pay a quasi-tax to a public institution that will distribute this money according to a key known only to itself, in order to cover costs. So it is not rather extended producer responsibility, it is simply a tax system, a quasi-tax system, the rate of which is to result from the regulation and that's it.

- Jakub Tyczkowski, president of the management board of Rekopol, a packaging recovery organization, tells the Newseria agency.

- So let's not call it extended producer responsibility, but simply a national system of distributing money for packaging waste management - he adds.

Opposition to the introduction of the EPR in the form proposed by the ministry is most often heard among representatives of companies introducing products in packaging to the market and packaging recovery organizations. The legislator assumes that as a result of the introduction of the new system model, packaging recovery organizations will cease their activities in their current form after a transitional period, i.e. in 2028. Similarly to the past, producers, after obtaining an appropriate permit issued by the minister responsible for climate, will be able to independently fulfill the obligations arising from the EPR.

- Interestingly, part of the waste management industry is also not happy with such proposals. I am not convinced that all local governments realize what it would actually look like, so opinions are very divided - says Jakub Tyczkowski.

There is no such EPR model in which producers will not pay for selective collection and preparation for recycling, we are aware of this and we are ready to actually pay such fees, but it is very important what this money will be spent on. This is where the EPR model we will implement in Poland comes into play. In practically all European Union countries, EPR is based on recovery organizations, on very flexible cooperation between recovery organizations, local governments, recyclers, waste companies and us as the introducers, in order to achieve the highest possible levels of selective collection and recycling of packaging - this is the main goal - and at rational costs resulting from the market game between all participants.

- says Andrzej Gantner, general director and vice-president of the Polish Federation of Food Producers.

As he emphasizes, the model proposed by the Ministry of Climate and Environment is similar to the one in force in Croatia and Hungary , based on a state monopoly . Producers introducing products and packaged products to the market are only passive tax payers in it, who have no influence on whether the packaging will actually be selectively collected for this money and what the recycling levels will be.

We are afraid that such a model based on the whims of officials, i.e. managed by the National Environmental Protection Fund, according to fees that will be set by the Ministry of Climate based on regulations, will result in only one thing. Firstly, Poland will not meet all the required levels of selective recycling collection, it will incur penalties, and the only remedy that the state office will have for such a situation will be to increase the fees for us introducing, i.e. in fact, increase prices for consumers.

- warns Andrzej Gantner.

- We simply oppose such a bureaucratic, monopolistic system, which is completely detached from the free market economy - he adds.

- If the EPR is implemented well, i.e. on the principles that we propose, in which business responsibility should be implemented through business relations, the consumer should not feel it. However, if we are talking about administrative relations, we have such examples in the European Union, it may turn out that we will be dealing with a noticeable increase in the prices of some products, for example food. So we have to be careful how we introduce this EPR in Poland - assesses Jakub Tyczkowski.

As he explains, as the system develops, waste management costs will be covered to a lesser extent from the so-called garbage fee , which residents pay to municipalities, and to a greater extent from the fee included in the slightly higher price of products. Producers introducing products to the market, who will have to pay the new fee, will partly pass it on to product prices.