Obligation to sort construction and demolition waste
New types of waste to be sorted
The Act of 21 November 2024 amending the Waste Act and the Waste Act Amendment, as well as certain other acts, introduced new provisions imposing an obligation to sort construction and demolition waste (CDW). The new legislation became effective on 1 January 2025.
The amendment makes it mandatory to sort CDW into the following types of waste, as a minimum:
- Wood
- Metals
- Glass
- Plastics
- Gypsum
- Mineral waste (including concrete, bricks, tiles and ceramics, and stones)
Waste sorting may be outsourced to a professional contractor.
However, the new legislation does not unconditionally require waste to be sorted on site – the current wording of Article 101a(3) of the Waste Act allows the producer of CDW to transfer it to a third party specialized in waste management. The transfer of waste requires the conclusion of a contract between the parties, which must be in writing to be valid.
Joint and several liability
Although it is possible to outsource the sorting of waste to a specialized operator, the Act provides for the joint and several liability of the waste generator and the operator to whom the sorting of waste has been outsourced for failure to comply with the obligation to sort CDW.
Natural persons who are not economic operators are excluded from liability; this obligation rests with the next holder of the waste to whom it is handed over (this may be, for example, a municipal sorted-waste collection point). Just like the waste producer, the next holder of the waste is not obliged to sort the waste itself and may contract it out to a specialized operator, while remaining jointly and severally liable.
Penalties for failure to sort waste
Failure to sort construction and demolition waste as required by the new regulations is punishable by an administrative fine of between PLN 1,000 and PLN 1,000,000 under Article 194(1)(6a) of the Waste Act.
Practical problems
At the moment, mainly due to the relatively small number of operators holding waste processing permits that allow for separation of the types of waste specified in the Act from “mixed” CDW, some practical problems arise primarily from the question of whether a producer of “mixed” CDW can delegate the obligation to separate the waste types specified in Article 101a(1) of the Waste Act only to an operator holding a waste processing authorization (permit), or also to an operator that holds a waste collection authorization (permit).
In the course of the legislative work, the Ministry of Climate and Environment has consistently taken the view that it is acceptable to assign the obligation to separate waste types (i.e. to transfer waste) only to an entity holding a waste processing permit. However, we would like to note that this view is not explicitly reflected in the text of the new provisions. In fact, Article 101a(3) of the Waste Act makes a reference to Article 27(2) of the same Act, i.e. also to a holder of a waste collection permit.
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