Deposit system one year on: Gdańsk reports 10 mln zł losses, fees for non-members rise

Municipalities report losses after a year

Gdańsk now puts its losses at about 10 mln zł for the first year of the system, according to Piotr Kryszewski, director for green Gdańsk, who gave the figure on the Strefa Samorządowa programme on Radio Gdańsk. The city's earlier estimate exceeded 8 mln zł, and no detailed settlement has been published that would allow the new figure to be checked independently. Kryszewski also said municipalities received no compensation that would offset the financial effects of the change. Gdynia and the gmina of Pruszcz Gdański report similar problems, with valuable materials disappearing from municipal sorting plants while the cost of handling the remaining waste does not fall at the same pace.

Gdańsk's losses trace back to lower sales of recyclables. In the first quarter of 2026 the city recorded falls of 33% for clear PET, 41% for blue and 51% for green material, and revenue from recovered materials was about 700 thousand zł lower. Before the deposit system, plastic bottles and aluminium cans often ended up in yellow bags, where sorting plants recovered them and sold them on. More of them now go straight back to shops and deposit machines, which municipal plants never see.

Why some producers stay outside the scheme

Producers that stay out of the system must pay a product fee instead, a charge calculated on the weight of packaging they put on the market. Under the packaging law, firms in the system must ensure that 77% of empty packaging is returned, rising to 90% from 2029. The product fee for plastic and cans was 10 groszy per kilogram in 2025, is 1 zł in 2026 and will be 5 zł from 2027. A November 2024 amendment requires firms outside the system to apply triple that rate to drink packaging, which means 3 zł per kilogram today and 15 zł from 1 January 2027. The ministry of climate and environment explained the low starting rates in a reply to a parliamentary interpellation, saying it had proposed rules easing barriers to entry for businesses.

20263

202715

2026

3 zł/kg

2027

15 zł/kg

Data from the article text

20250.1

20261

20275

2025

0.1 zł/kg

2026

1 zł/kg

2027

5 zł/kg

Data from the article text

An energy drink from Liner Polska of Ząbki carries a QR code in place of the deposit mark, leading to social media linked to the online personality Skolima. Asked by Wirtualna Polska why it stays outside the system, a co-owner of the company called it a business model and a calculation. The article says a can without the deposit costs 50 groszy less on the shelf than competing products.

Collection beyond the shop

The ministry says nearly 750 dedicated collection points outside the retail network now operate across Poland. Those points remain small next to the networks of large chains, with Biedronka reported to run just under 3,900 bottle machines and Lidl about 1,000. Sweden offers a model for municipal sites, where collection centres similar to Polish PSZOK facilities host Pantamera Express machines.

“In those waste collection centres, more than 70 Pantamera Express machines are operating.”

Gęśla, managing director of Envipco Polska, also described Portugal, where the operator SDR Portugal plans 50 return kiosks in 38 gminas, rolled out gradually. The Netherlands extended its system in stages, starting with plastic bottles and then adding cans.

What happens to returned packaging

Super Express explains that after collection cans are separated from PET bottles, bottles may be sorted further by colour, and the material is then cleaned and handed to a recycler. Only properly prepared material can be turned into recyclate for new packaging, which is what closes the loop. The quality of sorting therefore determines how much of the material can be reused. The same report notes that the number of returns alone does not show how well the mechanism works.