Local authorities can make money from waste processing

Waste is a valuable source of energy. What is the waste recovery potential?

Artur Pielech: Most waste can be converted into energy. Poland’s energy mix should be strengthened by energy produced from refuse-derived fuels. This includes biogas derived from the fermentation of biologically active waste and alternative fuels obtained from the processing of contaminated plastics. We also recover raw materials, such as clean plastics, paper, glass, metals, and even construction waste.

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Samorządy na przetwarzaniu odpadów mogą zarobić

Miks energetyczny Polski powinien zostać wzmocniony przez energię produkowaną przy użyciu paliw pochodzących z odpadów – mówią Artur Pielech, prezes FBSerwis i Janina Ewa Orzełowska, członek zarządu województwa mazowieckiego.

Is the Mazowsze government involved in the issue?

Janina Ewa Orzełowska: Of course. As the province government, we used to be in charge of waste management, but we were deprived of these competences. Mazowsze has a lot of waste to deal with. We have to meet the recycling conditions imposed by the European Commission and these tasks have been allocated to municipal authorities. They know that they have to obtain the required percentage of recovery in the subsequent years. For example, in 2023, it is 35%. Municipal authorities are obliged to participate in tenders; so, most often they choose the offer that is the cheapest and not necessarily most beneficial to recovery.

Mr A. Pielech decided to find alternative solutions to this problem. The last fraction is the biggest problem as it goes to the landfill but could be managed differently – turned into heat, for example.

AP: I am a little bit scared of the winter. We will all start burning waste in domestic incinerators. It is not supposed to be this way. We should have state-of-the-art facilities able to capture all hazardous substances. It is only then that we can start producing heat from waste. It is possible to produce 6–7 million tonnes of solid fuel in Poland to be used for these purposes. This would account for several percent of the country’s heating needs. I would like to build such installations and cooperate with municipal authorities in this respect as, after all, they would be responsible for waste supply.

JEO: Everything we have done since 2017, i.e. the first anti-smog resolution, is being rejected now. We can use anything to burn, they say. Nobody talks about health anymore and that is what really matters.

What makes it difficult to change?

AP: It is not about money. We have the funds for green investments, not only from commercial sources. It is not about technologies either. From the investor’s perspective, the administrative processes and public resistance against the investment are the main problem. It is in everyone’s interest to create new installations for energy and raw material recovery. We are going to pay penalties for low recovery levels in a while and this will result in the society paying higher prices for waste collection. The time needed to carry out administrative procedures has to be reduced so that the installation can be built in a maximum of three years and not five or six.

JEO: The procedures have to be streamlined. It is no wonder that entrepreneurs are nervous. It is difficult to decide on the investment if the entire investment preparation process takes four to five years.

What should residents of communes know about extended producer liability and deposit systems?

JEO: This solution is to shift the responsibility for packaging to its producers to a certain degree. It is to induce businesses to find alternatives to current packaging to make it suitable for the deposit system and reusable.

Glass bottles used to be returnable. Today, almost all of them are non-returnable.

JEO: PET bottles, the ones that are the hardest to dispose of, are everywhere. Some plastic products are being phased out. Perhaps, entrepreneurs will realise that packaging that can be bought back pays off as it can be reused. And if it cannot be reused, it can be disposed of. The core idea is to lift the burden off the residents. Today, the costs of waste stream and waste disposal are very high.

AP: Today, the packaging has no value. It is often thrown away anywhere. The deposit system increases the value of the packaging. The system is intended to encourage people to return the packaging to the right place.

JEO: Consumers will take care of the bottle if they know they are supposed to get money for it. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, bearing slightly higher production costs for a beverage in a glass bottle will know that the bottle will come back to them so that the can use it again. The deposit system that was used before made the bottle quite cheap. It did not have much value despite the deposit system in place. However, it did have value for entrepreneurs as they had to bear higher costs to produce new packaging.

Taking advantage of your presence here, we can discuss the cooperation between the public and private entities. How do local governments and private entities work together in the field of waste management?

JEO: Entrepreneurs pay CIT and employ people and that is why they are important for local governments. They should have the best possible conditions to operate.

AP: We are interdependent on each other. The cooperation varies from region to region. Some municipal authorities know they can make good money from waste processing. Some local governments are minority shareholders in our ventures and the dividend from the profits can make a significant contribution to the municipal budget. The plants are modern so that they do not in any way have a negative impact on the environment.

How to improve the selective waste collection system?

JEO: Selective waste collection points have been set up in many places. It is necessary to ensure that those who operate them segregate waste properly so that the waste goes straight to recycling and to the mixed waste. There is still a problem with properly preparing the waste for recycling.

AP: More and more people are stopping segregating. I believe in economic incentives. We need individual labelling for waste from particular households.