New laws on waste management

On 1 January 2021 two new laws governing waste management went into effect.


The Act on Waste is a general regulation, dealing with less specific issues, while the Act on End-of-Life Products sets out obligations for handling selected products, such as batteries, accumulators and other electrical equipment, tires and vehicles, with certain statutory exceptions. The Act on End-of-Life Products stipulates obligations in the production and marketing of selected products as well as in the handling of these products at the moment they become waste. It also introduces “extended producer responsibility” (EPR), which cannot be circumvented, even if a producers fulfils its obligations within the collective recycling system. An important change related to manufacturers, distributors and sellers of electrical equipment is that a “recycling fee” will now be visible in the price.