A series of fires in landfills in our country forced the introduction of new legal regulations. No one doubts that these fires were not accidental.

The remiza.pl portal has even published a map on which places where a fire occurred and illegal disposal of waste were marked.

Source: https://twitter.com/Remizapl

One of the most important issues that the Ministry of the Environment wants to regulate is landfill monitoring.

What is the issue of monitoring storage sites now?

An entrepreneur who wants to receive clear and precise information about how to proceed may encounter a problem. Namely, on the Internet you can find many contradictory information, and articles from a few months ago or years ago. In this situation, it is not difficult to disinformation.

Taking into account the statements of representatives of the Ministry, it can be assumed that from today – ie from February 22, 2019, enterprises dealing in waste collection and processing have the obligation that their waste storage facilities should be equipped with video monitoring.

Indeed, the legal regulation from which this provision follows – art. 25 para. 6a and 6b of the Waste Act on visual monitoring, it comes into force today. However, it should be mentioned here about rt. 12 of the Act of 20 July 2018 on Amending the Act on Waste and Certain Other Acts (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 1592), which states that:

“Art. 12. A waste holder who before the date of entry into force of this Act has obtained permission to collect waste or permit waste treatment, permission for waste production including waste collection or processing or integrated permit including waste collection or processing, waste storage or landfill manager obliged to meet the requirements specified in art. 25 para. 6a and 6b of the Act changed in art. 1 and the requirements specified in the regulations issued on the basis of art. 25 para. 8a of this Act within 6 months from the date of entry into force of this Act. ”

In connection with the aforementioned provision, entities collecting and processing waste have time to install monitoring until March 5, 2019. In practice, we have 10 days from the introduction of the obligation until it is actually met.

This date was confirmed by the Ministry in the following document:

“Information of the Minister of the Environment on the implementation of the Act of 20 July 2018 on the amendment of the Act on Waste and Certain Other Acts” (p. 5)

What are the requirements of the Waste Act at this moment?

The Waste Act requires that the recording of the video image of the storage control system or the storage of waste should be:

*stored for one month from the date of recording,
*available at the request of the body authorized to control activities in the field of waste management, court, prosecutor’s office, the Police, National Fiscal Administration, Border Guard, Internal Security Agency or Central Anticorruption Bureau (providing a fixed image or a copy thereof),
*24-hour image record and ensured identification of people staying in this place,
*stored and protected against unauthorized access and its loss, in particular as a result of damage or theft.

Are there any separate, detailed requirements regarding visual monitoring?

At the moment, no, but soon they will be specified in a separate regulation, which, however, is just a project. Therefore, we are currently not in force and can not be required by administrative and control authorities.

We invite you to follow our website. If only there are any new legal regulations that you need to know about, we will definitely inform you about it!

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