During a press conference on Wednesday (14 February), Polish Deputy Minister of Climate and Environment Anita Sowińska set out plans to reform the country’s waste management regulations, including changes to a ministerial advisory team on “systemic solutions in waste management” and the national Environmental Protection Institute.
Deputy Minister Sowińska indicated that as part of waste management reforms, the composition of the ministerial waste management advisory team will be expanded, which was established t in November 2020. Initially, experts handling waste management tasks at the governmental, local government, business, and scientific levels comprised the team.
The new Climate and Environment Ministry proposes expanding the advisory team with representatives from additional institutions involved in waste management tasks, including the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection, National Waste Management Chamber, Polish Zero Waste Association and Polish Recycling Association and Ombudsman for Small and Medium-sized Businesses.
“I would like the team to be an advisory force and a good form of dialogue. Therefore, I have invited representatives from the business side, primarily from the recycling industry, as well as non-governmental organisations and institutes,” said Deputy Minister Anita Sowińska.
The Deputy Minister also informed about planned changes to the national database of products and packaging and waste management, known as the BDO system under the national Environmental Protection Institute. As Deputy Minister Sowińska emphasised, the Climate and Environment Ministry will address “the main needs of users of this system” this year. These will include the development of a reporting module and the introduction of new functionalities in the account management module.
“These issues were raised by voivodeship marshals and individual institutions,” said Deputy Minister Sowińska.