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The results of public consultations and inter-ministerial arrangements of the draft implementing the Plastics Directive into the national legal order have been published. The provisions of the directive were originally to be implemented on 3 July 2021, but as a result of protracted consultations this deadline was not met.
It follows from the draft law that the law will enter into force within 14 days of its promulgation (with the exception of certain provisions). Analysing the entire legislative process, one may come to the conclusion that the Act will come into force later this year. However, the most important part of these provisions related to new fees imposed on entrepreneurs will take effect from 1 January 2023 and it seems that this date is final.
Under the draft, retail and wholesale units, as well as catering services, will be obliged to pay a special levy on selected single-use plastic packaging on a quarterly formula. This will be settled on an annual basis after submission of the appropriate report. Unfortunately, there is no precise list of goods/packaging that are covered by these regulations. It should be emphasised that the annex to the bill introduces only categories of packaging. Thus, these are: beverage cups and meal containers. At the same time, the Ministry of Climate and Environment emphasised that there will be no additional guidelines as to what will be covered by the new fee due to the existence of official instructions of the European Commission in this respect. These, however, do not give precise guidance on how to approach the subject either. They only indicate certain categories, such as a container containing snacks such as crackers or containing sauces such as mustard or ketchup. Thus, businesses have been left to their own thinking in this area. It is worth mentioning that failure to pay the levy in the correct amount will create the risk of a 50% penalty, which will be calculated on the base of the correct amount that should have been paid. A similar mechanism already operates in the sugar tax. The amount of this levy has been set at 20 groszy for each pack, with the possibility of its amount rising to PLN 1.
On the other hand, producers and entities importing selected products in plastic packaging will be obliged to pay a new annual fee related to the issue of management of waste arising from such packaging. The fee has been set at PLN 0.01 for each kg of packaging, but it may rise to PLN 0.20.
One thing is certain: time is running out and entrepreneurs seem to be hoping that this legislation will not enter into force at all. The official publication of the results of the public consultations and inter-ministerial arrangements indicates that the continuation of the legislative process has begun, which is already rather a formality.
It is worth emphasising that the draft act which implements the Plastics Directive is one of several drafts which are aimed at comprehensive introduction of the waste package into the national legal order. Other regulations are:
comprehensive implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility („ROP"), which in essence amounts to imposing a new tax called a packaging levy and
the introduction of a deposit system which for the time being will cover single-use plastic bottles up to 3l and reusable glass bottles up to 1.5l.
The assumed effective date of the ROP regulation is also 2023, which means that businesses will have to comply with two new, extensive regulations in the same year.
What will this mean in practice for entrepreneurs and ordinary consumers? First and foremost, it means increased operating costs for businesses offering packaged products which will be covered by the new regulations, and for consumers it means increased prices. The only way to escape, so to speak, from the regulations concerning the Plastics Directive is to make product packaging lose its status of 'disposable', which will force businesses to take packaging that has already been used off the market and treat it as raw material rather than waste. This will make used plastic packaging more valuable and start to be returned to the economy in greater quantities. In conclusion, under every possible scenario, there will be an increase in operating costs.
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