Packaging in BDO - step by step accounting

Entrepreneurs whose business consists in placing packaging or products on the market in our country must account for the packaging that they introduce. This group includes, among others:

• producers - both local and operating on a national scale,

• distributors and importers, on behalf of whom the packed goods are delivered to our country from abroad,

• Internet sellers, selling both in their own e-shop, as well as on auction or social networks

• conducting gastronomic activity, in which meals are served in take-away packages.

The entrepreneurs from the above examples are the so-called entities introducing and under the Act of 13 June 2013 on the management of packaging and packaging waste, are obliged to account for each packaging placed on the market on the domestic market for the first time.

BDO - does the person placing the packaging on the market must have a number?

The BDO register, or "Database on products and packaging", until recently associated mainly with entities producing or receiving waste, is the first place to which the so-called introductory. Why? Each entrepreneur placing packaging or products on the domestic market is required to register with BDO and obtain a number for his company.

Registration in the BDO database for introducing companies is payable and amounts to PLN 100 for micro-entrepreneurs and PLN 300 for other entrepreneurs. The fee in the same amount is paid later every year as the so-called annual BDO fee.

types of packaging, source own tomoo.pl

The product fee for the introduced packaging

The product fee is a penalty for failure to meet the obligations and failure to achieve the statutory levels of recycling and recovery of packaging or products by the introducing party. The product fee is also a factor that motivates the entrepreneur to fulfill the above-mentioned obligations.

The amount of the product fee depends on the type and weight of packaging or products placed on the market by the entrepreneur. Each type of material, and there are seven of them (plastic, aluminum, steel, paper and cardboard, glass, wood and the so-called others), has a defined rate for 1 kg and a percentage of recycling. Having these data, the entrepreneur uses the formula provided for in the act to calculate the fee due.

Public educational campaigns

The product fee for packaging or packaged products placed on the market is not the only fee for the introducer. He is also obliged to finance the so-called public educational campaigns, i.e. pro-ecological activities aimed at raising awareness of, inter alia, consumers, proper handling of packaging waste. For the purpose of public educational campaigns, the introducer must allocate min. 2% of the net value of the packaging placed on the market in the previous calendar year.

An entrepreneur can implement public educational campaigns in two ways. The first is to pay the said 2% of the net value of the introduced packaging to the account of the Marshal's Office. The second option is to conduct pro-ecological activities on your own, for which not less than the above 2% will be spent. Such activities may consist in the preparation of educational materials (posters, brochures) through which the introducer will educate recipients, e.g. in the field of proper waste sorting.

Annual report for the introduced packaging and products

Fees are not the only obligations of the introducer. An annual report for packaging and products placed on the market should be submitted by 15 March of the following year. The report is submitted electronically via the BDO system from the main user account (authorized representative / proxy).

Penalties for the introducer

An entrepreneur who does not fulfill his obligations or does not fulfill them accurately must take into account the consequences, and these can be costly. On companies that operate without the required entry in the BDO register, do not keep a record of packaging or do not submit reports for the introduced packaging in a timely manner and thus do not pay the product fee, the Provincial Environmental Protection Inspector or the court may impose fines or administrative fines in the amount of from 5,000 to even 1,000,000 PLN.

Introducer's obligations and fees - how to avoid them?

Internet seller, manufacturer, importer, owner of a pizzeria - they all market packaging or products, therefore they must fulfill the obligations of the so-called introductory. The legislator does not provide for the possibility of avoiding liability from their implementation, but has provided for the possibility of assigning them to specialized entities, such as, for example, the TOM-DOLEKO-EKOLA Packaging Recovery Organization.

The recovery organization will achieve the levels of recycling and recovery required by the Act, will submit on behalf of the introducer an annual report for the packaging or products placed by him on the market, eliminate the high product fee and fee for public educational campaigns, and ensure the entrepreneur, in terms of BDO-related obligations, to operate fully lawful.

Do you sell online? Do you have a restaurant or cafe? Do you produce domestically or market products imported from abroad? As an introducer, you must fulfill your BDO and packaging obligations!

Delegate the implementation of statutory obligations to the Packaging Recovery Organization TOM-DOLEKO-EKOLA S.A.

You can do it entirely online, using our calculator at: https://tomoo.pl/kalkulator

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