The bailout strategy is intended to increase recycling and reuse of beverage packaging. There's more to this than just a garbage segregation. It is designed to encourage us not to throw empty bottles and cans on the street, in the woods or in mixed waste, but back into circulation. And nothing motivates better than money. We just don't get our bail money back.
Why is the bail strategy introduced in Poland?
According to the authoritative website of the Ministry of Climate, the introduction of the strategy is expected to bring a number of benefits:
reducing contamination by packaging waste,
increase the level of selective collection of packaging waste,
increasing recycling levels of packaging waste,
create affirmative waste segregation habits.
This is besides a request of the EU SUP (Single-Use Plastics) directive, which requires Poland to accomplish very advanced levels of selective collection of packaging – up to 77% from 2025 and 90% from 2029. Without a bailout system, it would be virtually impossible to accomplish these objectives.
How will the bail strategy work in practice?
The bail for bottles is not new: beer amateurs or tourists know it, due to the fact that in many European countries it is standard (Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Norway and Sweden).
The fresh solution works on a akin principle, but is much wider and will be more convenient for customers. From 1 October 2025 the strategy will be covered by:
disposable plastic bottles (PET) with a capacity of up to 3 litres,
metal cans up to 1 litre,
reusable glass bottles up to 1.5 litres.
In practice, it will look like a deposit will be added to the price of the drink at the counter. So this will only happen at the payment stage, so you gotta remember that the price of the product on the shelf will not include this fee. Each package covered by the strategy will have a peculiar indication – the logotype of the bailout strategy and information on the amount of deposit. Just like the bottom.
It is worth noting that we will only recover bail for packaging with this peculiar logotype. Bottles and cans bought before 1 October or those not covered by the strategy (e.g. after milk or oil) should inactive be disposed of in the appropriate segregation containers and a fresh charge will be added for them.
How much is bail and where will the bottles and cans be returned?
The most crucial issue for us, as consumers, is the amount of bail and how to recover it. According to the Regulation of the Minister of Climate and Environment, the rates will be the same throughout Poland.
Security for bottles and cans:
Plastic bottles (PET) and metallic cans: 50 cents
Reusable glass bottles: 1 gold
There is besides an exception: shops do not always gotta give money in the form of cash, but they can besides give us a voucher, coupon or voucher for shopping.
Where will the packages be returned? The work to collect packages will have all shops with an area of more than 200 m2 (e.g. discounts and markets). Smaller facilities will be able to join the strategy voluntarily.
In addition, the Act guarantees that at least 1 point of reception will be established in each municipality. The packaging can be returned by hand to the store worker (e.g. at the box office) or in peculiar vending machines, alleged recyclomats or bottles (the first ones have already been created at, for example, Lidla or Ladybugs).
The biggest novelty in relation to the old bailout rules will be that erstwhile returning the packages there will be no receipt required. Thus we will be able to return the bottle bought in 1 store in a completely different place in Poland.
There is 1 very crucial condition. As we read in authoritative rules, "packs should not be crushed before being returned to the collection point". They must be empty, but in full, so that the device or worker can scan the code and confirm that the packaging is in the system. A crushed or destroyed can or bottle may not be accepted in the store.
