The bail strategy will begin to apply on 1 October 2025 (it was to start from the beginning of the year, but it was a slide). "It is intended to cover glass and plastic bottles as well as cans. Consumers will be required to pay a deposit for the packaging. In practice, this will mean that the mechanics will force an additional charge on buyers, but customers will be able to recover the money, returning the utilized bottles and cans at the collection points," we read in InnPoland.
Which stores will gotta introduce the bailout strategy on 1 October 2025?
The fresh regulations will cover all shops with a commercial area of more than 200 square meters. The website portalpozywczy.pl described a subject that was not mentioned loudly before: the legislator did not foresee any exceptions and the work applies to institutions regardless of their profile of activity.
So if the store sells even 1 soda in a can or a bottle, it must be ready to accept packages from customers and return bail. Only smaller stores, or little than 200 sqm, can enter the strategy voluntarily. In practice, they do not gotta do so at all.
Rossmann doesn't want to choice up utilized bottles or cans. He's giving up the sale of drinks.
The strategy has not yet entered into force, and it is already giving birth to problems that have seemingly not been predicted or turned distant from them. Rossmann, who is the largest drugstore in Poland, began to talk openly about this.
Since Rossmann's drugstores have an average of 400 sqm of surface area, the network would should be obligatory to control into the strategy and receive utilized packaging. Meanwhile, the sale of beverages is simply a tiny part of their business. That's why the bosses made a extremist decision.
"We quit the sale of beverages" - said the typical of the network, Agata Nowakowska, in an interview with the Food Portal. The spokeswoman explains that the bailout strategy is "not adapted to the format of the drugstore where cosmetics are sold mainly, and drinks are a niche category".
As the products covered by the strategy represent a tiny part of the offer, the network considered that it would be easier to simply retreat them. The portal reports that pharmacists have a akin problem, who besides protest the work to take utilized bottles in pharmacies.
Drogeries, pharmacies or RTV stores can have a bail system. There's an appeal to Donald Tusk
This issue raises objections from the industry. The Polish Trade and Distribution Organisation (POHiD), which brings together the largest networks, has already called on Prime Minister Donald Tusk to take an urgent look at the problem of "obligatory participation of non-food shops" in the bailout system. Rossmann’s rebellion can shortly be joined by another networks.
The rules are rather inconsistent. While the work falls on the router or even the RTV/AGD stores (if they have drinks in offer), fuel stations will not gotta choice up packaging (but they can join voluntarily), as no of their facilities exceeds the threshold of 200 sqm of commercial space. And the sale of beverages (beyond fuel, of course) is 1 of the main activities.
