Poland's Ministry of the Environment is currently drafting a bill which is to introduce compulsory recycling fees for plastic bags at local retail outlets.
“Entrepreneurs who operate retail or wholesale outlets and offer light plastic shopping bags are required to collect a recycling fee from customers which purchase such shopping bags,” the draft says.
“The collected recycling fee will be wired to a separate bank account operated by the authorities of the region where such light plastic shopping bags are offered until March 15 of the year that follows the year when such a fee was collected.”
Poland's tax year ends 15 March every year.
Under the draft legislation, PLN 1 (€0.23) per bag will be set as the maximum amount of the recycling fee.
Most recently, the draft bill was submitted for public consultations to four local employers' organisations and the country's three major trade unions. The stakeholders were required by the ministry to submit their opinions on the draft measure by mid-October.
The regulatory impact assessment (RIA) document which accompanies the draft bill states that the measure is expected to impact on about 450,000 Poland-based retailers. The first recycling fees are to be collected in 2019, and they are expected to generate about PLN 1.143bn (€266m) in revenue for the regional authorities.
“It is expected that … the sales of light plastic shopping bags will decrease every year,” the RIA says.