“This year alone, thanks to the effective action of the Environmental Protection Inspectorate, nearly 3800 tonnes of waste illegally brought to our country were returned. This is an example of effective action aimed at curbing problems in waste management, which was reinforced by last year's amendments to the Waste Management Act and the Environmental Protection Inspectorate Act,” said Henryk Kowalczyk, Minister of Environment.

The so-called Waste Package, which entered into force last year, after being proposed and drafted by the Ministry of Environment, aimed at preventing issues in waste management, brought tangible results. Thanks to intensive activities of the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection, from the 7th of January to the 25th of March 2019, 3772.7 tonnes of waste illegally imported to Poland from the United Kingdom were sent back from nine locations in six voivodeships.

“We are glad that the changes we have proposed to the waste package turned out to be effective. The results of the introduced changes only confirm that the amendment of these laws was necessary,” said Minister Henryk Kowalczyk.

The Chief Inspector of Environmental Protection, as the competent authority for transboundary shipments of waste in Poland, negotiated the return of waste with the UK environmental agency. In total, between 2018 and 2019, more than 5000 tonnes of municipal waste illegally imported into our country were returned.

 Despite many complex organisational issues, the coordination of the process and the amount of waste, we need to emphasise and commend the excellent cooperation of the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection with the British counterpart,” the Minister added.