Poland’s circular economy is still at an early stage of development, according to experts from PreZero. One of the main barriers is the lack of a single, coherent strategy and a clear roadmap for the next five or ten years, which makes it harder to plan investments in this area.
One example is municipal waste management, where Poland lacks sufficient infrastructure. As a result, the country is losing a valuable resource that could be used to produce energy and heat. Industry representatives argue that legislative changes are needed to accelerate investment.
The circular economy is a model in which the use of raw materials and the generation of waste are reduced through the design of durable products, reuse, recycling and material or energy recovery. The aim is to keep resources in circulation for as long as possible. One important element of this model is the processing of municipal waste.
“When we talk about the challenges of developing the circular economy in Poland, the main barrier is that we look at it in a fragmented way. We are not developing a nationwide strategy consistently, but implementing individual solutions,” said Kamil Majerczak, CEO of PreZero Polska, in an interview with Newseria during the European Economic Congress in Katowice.
The Ministry of Development and Technology is responsible for coordinating Poland’s economic transformation towards a circular economy model and promoting its joint implementation by engaging stakeholders at local, regional, national, EU and global levels. In 2019, the ministry prepared a roadmap whose implementation period covered 2019–2023. An updated version has still not been prepared.
In 2023, Poland adopted the National Waste Management Plan 2028, a strategic document defining objectives, directions and priorities for waste management in the country. However, much of the data presented in the document comes from 2018.
“If we look at where we are as a country in terms of the circular economy, this is still the beginning of the road. Of course, we can find many examples of circular solutions. What we lack, as an entity looking at waste management from a macro perspective, and more broadly at environmental protection, is a clear vision and roadmap showing where the circular economy should be in Poland in five or ten years,” Majerczak explained.
In recent years, Poland’s circularity rate has been declining and remains clearly below the EU average. At the same time, the volume of waste generated continues to grow. Deloitte’s report “From Raw Material to Raw Material: How Close Are We to a Circular Economy?” indicates that by 2050 it will increase by 26%, reaching almost 18 million tonnes.
Poland’s municipal waste recycling rate increased by 25 percentage points, from 16% in 2010 to 41% in 2022. In countries such as Germany, Slovenia and the Netherlands, which are EU leaders, rates are significantly above 50%. This means that in Poland, a substantial share of the mass from municipal waste processing still ends up in landfills.
According to Deloitte analysts, this is partly the result of insufficient capacity at waste-to-energy facilities. Experts warn that Poland may therefore struggle to meet EU targets for reducing municipal waste landfilling to 20% by 2030 and 10% by 2035, as well as targets for reuse and recycling of 60% by 2030 and 65% by 2035.
“To facilitate the development of the circular economy in Poland, we must first support companies in carrying out investments. I am not referring to capital support, but to legislative support enabling such investments to be processed quickly. We are still very far from the targets set for us, including recycling and reducing landfill volumes. To achieve them, we must start investing very quickly and intensively. Poland lacks installations, and these require time to obtain decisions and implement investments, so we must start acting today,” said the CEO of PreZero Polska.
“Currently, it takes around five years from idea to implementation, of which three years are spent obtaining the required decisions and support from local communities in understanding what we want to do. When we talk about investments that are intended to develop the circular economy and are strategic from the country’s point of view, we cannot wait three years to obtain documentation,” he added.
According to Majerczak, circular economy solutions are not only a necessity required by European Union policy, but also an opportunity to increase Poland’s raw material independence and make more effective use of available resources.
“We are dependent on imports of raw materials, while at the same time, having access to a raw material such as waste, we allow it to be wasted. When we talk about the benefit of the circular economy, it is primarily about increasing our country’s energy independence,” Majerczak said.
“This waste can be used to produce electricity or heat. We are looking for various solutions in this area, but we are not using what we already have. I encourage us to look at waste as a resource that we not only can, but should, use as a country, because it will contribute to greater independence and support our energy mix,” he added.
Experts, industry representatives and public administration officials discussed the practical implementation of the circular economy in Poland during a debate held at the European Economic Congress in Katowice.
