Author: getty images Each hamburger, fries, salad or drink in a plastic cup is 20-25 groszy – and multiplied in many ways – of a new tax, and it doesn’t stop there
It is commonly referred to as the tax on plastics. In some countries of the European Union it is already in force, and in Poland it will come into force on January 1, 2024. We will pay it directly, e.g. PLN 0.25 for disposable plastic packaging, or indirectly – in the price of products, because the fee itself will be paid directly by the entrepreneur.
Contents
Plastic threatens the life of every PolePlastic tax: first 20-25 groszy per personWe will also pay the tax on plastic in pricesPlastic tax: another one in 2025 and it’s not over yet
This is just the beginning – the burden on the plastic tax will increase from year to year.
Plastic threatens the life of every Pole
There is really no other way than stopping, and preferably completely giving up plastic, which is not subject to one hundred percent selective collection, recycling and reuse. Plastic pollutes the environment.
In this regard, all limits have long been crossed. Not only are whales suffocating from the excess of plastic in the oceans, but large amounts, imperceptible to the naked eye, end up in drinking water and begin to accumulate in our bodies – like fish and other animals, in which there is also more and more of it.
The entire process of eliminating plastic was started by Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 5, 2019 on reducing the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (so-called SUP – Single Use Plastic).
The provisions fully implementing the EU directive into the Polish legal order will come into force in 2024. This will be due to the amendment to the Act on the Obligations of Entrepreneurs in the Management of Certain Wastes and on the Product Fee. The act is intended to limit the use of disposable plastic items, which the Sejm passed in late spring and signed by the president at the end of April 2023.
Plastic tax: first 20-25 groszy per person
The provisions of the act implementing the SUP Directive in Poland introduce, among others: a fee – up to PLN 1 – for certain disposable products that will be issued to customers. It is, for example, about packaging in which drinks or food are served. Retail outlets will have to provide customers with an alternative to a single-use plastic cup, which will be either biodegradable or reusable.
Ultimately, at the beginning, by the executive regulation to the act, these fees will be lower – PLN 0.20 and PLN 0.25. They will be collected by entrepreneurs running retail, wholesale or catering units that provide single-use plastic products to end-users.
The fee will also be charged by entrepreneurs who sell drinks or food via vending machines.
We will also pay the tax on plastic in prices
The Act primarily introduces a number of system changes aimed at reducing the amount of waste generated from plastic products or products containing plastic and their impact on the natural environment (taking into account the water environment and human health).
Each entrepreneur whose activity in any way (eg production, intra-Community acquisition/supply and import/export, use for business, sale) is related to the use of single-use plastics should analyze whether and how the new obligations apply to him.
In addition to the absolute ban on placing certain disposable products on the market and labeling those which, for technological reasons, must still be used for some time – which, of course, generates additional costs that entrepreneurs will ultimately charge consumers – it is primarily an order to finance the costs related to the management of waste generated from products of the same type that have been placed on the market. In addition, new obligations regarding containers and bottles and raising environmental awareness of customers.
All such activities generate additional costs or fees – e.g. in the event of failure to comply with strictly defined standards in the field of selective collection. Therefore, we will also pay the plastic tax in many ways and many times a year.
Plastic tax: another one in 2025 and it’s not over yet
Another act introducing a new form of tax on plastic was passed by the Sejm quite recently, in July 2023. This amendment the act on the management of packaging and packaging waste.
The most important change concerns the deposit for packaging: glass and plastic bottles and cans.
The deposit for each package is to be PLN 0.50 from January 1, 2025. Like any deposit – it is, as a rule, refundable, but it will not be easy, because not every seller and collector of the deposit will be obliged to purchase or return the deposit in a different form.
This is not the end, because the burdens of reducing plastic are complex and spread over time. As the experts of the consulting company Deloitte Polska comment on the act implementing the SUP Directive, for many entrepreneurs it will mean the need to introduce changes in their activities and incur additional fees, and in the case of some obligations, it may prove problematic in implementation, e.g. in the context of the obligation to ensure selective collection of bottles .
In the case of products covered by the ban on placing on the market and the obligation to label them, the legislator provided for the possibility of using them until stocks are exhausted (provided they are placed on the market before the date of entry into force of the act).
The next duties will come into effect on July 1, 2024. These are provisions on ensuring the availability of alternative packaging and the obligation to place drinks in disposable plastic bottles on the market, with caps and lids attached to these bottles.
In order to motivate entrepreneurs to effectively implement the new regulations, the legislator provided the possibility of imposing a number of administrative penalties (in the amount of PLN 500 to 500,000) for failure to comply with the obligations arising from the amendment.
No matter how you look at it, whether it’s expenses for technological changes or administrative penalties, they will ultimately increase the price of products, and thus burden the household budget of each family with a typical tax.
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2023-08-14 13:36:33
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