One system across the country
The Jednolity System Segregacji Odpadów has applied since 2017, with municipalities required to implement it by June 2022. The effect is that a blue bin means the same in Gdańsk as in Rzeszów.
That is unusual. In Spain, Italy or Germany the rules differ between cities or states, so a guide is only locally true. In Poland five colours are enough to know what to do anywhere.
Blue: paper
Newspapers, magazines, catalogues, notebooks, office paper, card and boxes. Flatten boxes, or one takes the space of several.
Not soiled or greasy paper, tissues and kitchen roll, milk and juice cartons, plastic-coated paper, or greasy pizza boxes.
Yellow: metals and plastics
Drinks bottles, household cleaning packaging, milk and juice cartons, films, bags, cans, caps, lids, small scrap metal and aluminium foil.
This is the bin for PACKAGING, not for everything made of plastic. Toys, bowls, plant pots, toothbrushes and appliances are not packaging and do not belong here.
Green: glass
Bottles and jars from drinks and food, glass cosmetic containers. Without caps and lids, which go in the yellow bin.
Not ceramics, porcelain, mirrors, window glass, light bulbs, or heat-resistant glassware. Those are different materials and they ruin the whole load.
Brown: bio
Food scraps, vegetable and fruit peelings, eggshells, coffee and tea grounds, plant matter, grass and small branches.
Not bones, meat, animal waste, ash, soil or liquids. Do not use ordinary carrier bags either: if a bag, only a compostable one.
Black or grey: mixed
Whatever cannot be assigned to any other fraction: soiled packaging, nappies, hygiene products, ceramics, cigarette ends.
It is not a bin for whatever you cannot be bothered to sort. The more that goes into mixed, the less is actually recovered.
PSZOK: what does not fit the five fractions
The selective collection point takes from residents what must not go in the bins: electrical waste, batteries, fluorescent tubes, paint and solvents, expired medicines, tyres, small amounts of rubble, furniture and bulky waste.
This is the missing piece in many people’s mental model and a main cause of illegal dumping: things that fit no bin end up at the edge of a wood, when the PSZOK would have taken them free.
What failing to sort costs
The mechanism here differs from most countries and is worth knowing, because it is not primarily a fine.
Where waste is not sorted, the municipality may charge the property owner a raised fee. By statute it can be no less than twice and no more than four times the standard rate.
In a block of flats that hits the whole property rather than one apartment, which is why neighbours react to it more sharply than to anything else about rubbish.
Separately, the municipal guard can issue a fine for absent or incorrect sorting, up to 500 zł.
When the bin is overflowing
A full bin is not permission to leave a bag beside it. One is enough for five more to appear within days, turning a collection point into an illegal dump.
Report it. A bin that overflows weekly is not a matter of manners but of insufficient capacity or infrequent collection, and that only changes on evidence. A dated, photographed history of the same place is what moves a municipality.
Sources
Does a milk carton go in the paper bin?
No. Milk and juice cartons are multi-material and go in the yellow bin for metals and plastics.
Where does a plastic toy go?
Mixed waste or the PSZOK. The yellow bin is for packaging, and a toy is not packaging.
Do packaging items need washing first?
They do not need washing, only emptying. The point is that they do not soil the rest of the load.
What is the penalty for not sorting?
The municipality may charge a raised fee, statutorily between twice and four times the standard rate, levied on the property owner. The municipal guard can additionally fine up to 500 zł.
What about rubble or an old sofa?
The PSZOK, or the municipal bulky waste collection. Neither goes in the bins, and leaving it at the edge of a wood is illegal dumping.