Recycling in Warsaw and in Poland has pretty short history and still it is not common to recycle the waste. However, there is a lot being done to educate citizens about ecology and recycling.

Unfortunately in Poland there is no collection of cans and bottles in the shops and supermarkets, so basically all the waste should be segregated and collected in special waste banks.

Recycling Etiquette:

• Communal Waste (Odpady komunalne) – al the waste produced by households should be recycled and collected separately according to the type of waste. It is in the property’s owner’s responsibility to organize the collection of waste. See the full list of collection points in Warsaw.
• Choose eco-friendly products
• Don’t waste resources.
  • Try to minimise usage of paper – print out only necessary documents
  • Don’t use plastic bags while shopping, try to reuse the cloth carrying bags
  • Save water and electricity
  • Give away your old clothes to charities
• Crush metal cans.
• Squeeze plastic bottles flat to expel as much air as possible.
• Scrape out any food remains/pour away excess liquid from metal containers and rinse with water
• Don’t worry too much to remove labels and lids from glass jars and bottlers.
• Remove the caps and lids from plastic containers.
• Always give away the dangers’ waste and electronics to special collection points.
• Never put old medications nor batteries into the organic waste.

Waste collection guide

Blue – paper (papier)

newspaper, magazines,
paper packages,
books

tetra-packs, 
greasy paper,
wallpaper

White – transparent glass (szklo bezbarwne)
Green – colour glass (szklo kolorwe)

bottles,
jars,
cosmetic glass containers

mirrors, car windscreens,
wine glasses, crystals,
ceramics, lenses

Yellow – packages, plastic, metal (opakowania, plastik, metal)

PET (bottled for fizzy drinks, cordial, cooking oil),
HDPE (bottled for milk & fruit juice, washing-up liquid, fabric conditioner),
PVC (bottles for still mineral water, toiletries, cordial)

empty cans after containing paint,
engine oil,
medications

Red – combined container for all different sorted waste in the colour bags
If no recycling waste banks are availbale, it is allowed to place segragated waste in a big red container.

Brown – organic (bioodpady)

hair, fur,
fruits, vegatables
leaves, cut grass

cooked meat
rest-overs of cooked food
fish

Danger waste ie. batteries, medication, asbestos should be collected in special places and never disposed with all other waste. See our full list of collection points in Warsaw.

Resources:

StolicaCzystosci.pl
um.warszawa.pl
recycling-guide.co.uk