PCEI is a co-organiser of a conference at POLECO – Międzynarodowe Targi Ochrony Środowiska (International Environmental Protection Fair)! On 15 October 2025, Pavilion 5 will host a debate entitled “Is the new EPR model a dead end? The future of packaging management in Poland”.
Poland is facing the biggest reform of its packaging and packaging waste management system in years. Draft bill UC100 provides for a move away from the pluralistic model in favour of a single, central entity managed by the state. This solution is intended to provide greater control and simpler settlements, but it also raises concerns: a lack of competition, rising costs and detachment from market realities.
Producers placing packaged products on the market are aware that they should bear the full cost of the system, but in return they want a say in how the funds are spent and a guarantee that they are financing actual recycling processes rather than bureaucracy. In other countries, it was precisely public-private partnership and the shared responsibility of producers, recyclers and recovery organisations that ensured the highest efficiency.
Moreover, recyclers have long been sounding the alarm that their industry is underfunded, while recovery organisations warn of losing what has been achieved over 20 years of building the market. During the panel, we will try to answer the question of whether the new model proposed by the Ministry will really improve the collection and recycling of packaging waste, or whether it will become yet another levy on businesses with no real environmental effects.
Is the model set out in UC100 a good solution for the waste management system in Poland, or will it be yet another dead end? Is centralisation an opportunity for stability and transparency, or rather a risk of monopoly, higher costs and lower environmental efficiency?
Moderator:
- Piotr Mazurek, Circular Economy Expert, Lewiatan Confederation
Participants:
- Katarzyna Barańska – Partner, Head of the Decarbonisation Team, Osborne Clarke
- Jacek Pietrzyk – Senior Consultant, Sustainability Consulting, Deloitte Central Europe
- Ewa Starzyk – Director for Regulatory Affairs and Sustainable Development, Polish Union of the Cosmetics Industry
- Paweł Sosnowski – Management Board Representative for Environmental Regulations, Interzero Organizacja Odzysku Opakowań S.A
- Andrzej Kubik – President of the Management Board, GPR Guma i Plastik Recycling Sp. z o.o.
We are co-organising the debate together with the Lewiatan Confederation and Grupa MTP
We invite you to register for the conference and download your tickets for the POLECO trade fair: https://poleco.pl/pl/dla-zwiedzajacych/wazne-informacje/wez-udzial-w-targach-poleco-2025/
See you on 15 October in Poznań!