The concept of extended producer responsibility – the example of a deposit-return system

In May 2018, the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (2018/851) was redrafted. These amendments constitute a direct cause of changes in the internal law of the European Union countries in terms of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Poland also projects changes to the provisions of national law in order to manage waste in a better and more efficient manner. The packaging deposit-return system (with reference to plastic bottles, glass bottles, cans) currently operates in 10 European countries, covering 26% of the European population. In Poland, the planned date of launching the deposit-return system is January 2022. The aim of the article is to present the concept of EPR and an attempt to diagnose this system comprising the possibility of introducing a deposit-return system, made from the perspective of legal sciences