– The Ministry of Climate and Environment plans to change the bailout system, and I note that they will not happen overnight, a suitable vacatio legis is needed.
First of all, it is about integrating disposable glass packaging into the bailout system, in peculiar the alleged monkeys that litter the environment. The second change, which is besides a social expectation, is standardization of the dimension of the bail coupon. We want to extend it and standardize it to 90 days – announced in an interview with Newseria Anita Sowińska, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Climate and Environment, during the conference of Kauka 360.
The bailout strategy was launched in Poland on 1 October 2025 and the transitional period ended on 31 December 2025.
After 1 year of operation of the bailout system, consumers proceed to get utilized to the fresh rules on return of packages, and beverage producers point to the request to improve and clarify certain aspects of its operation. However, they are afraid of extending the strategy with disposable glass bottles and associated costs. This change is announced by the Ministry of Climate and Environment, although it reserves that it will not happen overnight. The bailout strategy was launched in Poland on 1 October 2025 and the transitional period ended on 31 December 2025. Includes plastic PET bottles with a capacity of up to 3 l, metallic cans with a capacity of up to 1 l and multiple glass bottles with a capacity of up to 1.5 l. tiny alcohol glass bottles, called monkeys, are presently not covered by bail. The Ministry has already announced work on including them in the system.
– We thought we'd be given 2-3 years to fine-tune this strategy to accurately calculate costs and work on efficiency. Now we learn that the ministry, after 9 months of operation of the system, wants to extend it to another fraction of packaging, i.e. glass – says Krzysztof Pawiński, president of the Maspex Group. – We have placed over 23,000 vending machines in a commercial environment prepared for 2 factions: aluminum and PET. The introduction of the fresh faction is another twenty-seven 1000 automatics and expenses, somewhat counting, of the order of PLN 2 billion. We're frightened of this idea. We request time to implement a fresh faction.
For the beverage industry, the creation of a bailout strategy was primarily due to the environmental objectives set out in EU legislation
According to Deloitte's calculations of 2025, investment outlays related to the launch and operation of the bailout strategy may amount to PLN 11.5 billion over the next 10 years and operating costs – PLN 32.4 billion. Estimates of operating costs increased by PLN 9.3 billion compared to Deloitte's earlier calculations of experts. This was affected by, among others, higher costs of manual collection and more automatic collection machines.
– For the beverage industry, the creation of a bailout strategy was primarily due to the environmental objectives set out in EU legislation. The thought is that as many packaging as possible should be recyclable and can be utilized in fresh packaging. This is simply a long-term investment, due to the fact that these objectives will not be achieved during the year – says Andrzej Gantner, Vice president and manager General of the Polish Federation of Food Manufacturers of the Union of Employers. – On the another hand, these are besides costs that will be comparatively advanced in the first year and subsequent years. They request to be drastically reduced, and they request to be amended in the bill, which will reduce these costs.
At the statutory level, we are obliged to pay the production payments to the bailout system
– The operation of the bailout strategy entails crucial costs for the manufacturer. At the statutory level, we are obliged to pay production payments to the bailout system. Organisational costs entail that we are obliged to participate in this strategy in a certain operating arrangement as an introductory product. These are crucial changes related to product design, change of EAN codes to all products, order the minute of transition from the non-causal packaging strategy to the deposit packaging system. This is simply a immense amount of responsibilities and costs that had to be worked out," emphasises Krzysztof Pawinski. – We cannot yet calculate the cost stream accurately, but we believe that this time has not been wasted. In the scope of 2 factions – aluminum cans and PET bottles – we did a good job. We put the biggest logistics operation on our feet, and we only had 4 months.
According to Andrzej Gantner, the second amendment proposed by the MKiŚ is necessary, i.e. extending the word of bail certificates. – This must be changed immediately, due to the fact that what right does individual take from the consumer his money. The same applies to the anticipation of settlement, i.e. payment of bail on our cards," says the CEO of PFPŻ. – The strategy will only last erstwhile it has accepted us all, or consumers. It takes at least 3 years, and the ministry has actually given us 9 months. We have a strategy under construction where quite a few things request to be improved, On the another hand, it has been successful in another countries, so it should besides be ours.
