EPR System in Poland

For many young e-commerce founders, especially those juggling suppliers, fulfillment services, and cross-border shipping, BDO can feel like yet another acronym thrown into an already chaotic mix. And yet, it’s not something you can ignore. Think of BDO as Poland’s watchdog for anything that generates packaging waste. When you ship a product wrapped in cardboard, foil, or a branded box, you’re introducing packaging into the Polish market—meaning you’re part of the waste stream the government needs to monitor. And once you’re part of that stream, the law expects you to show up, register, report and prove that your packaging footprint is accounted for.

This isn’t just theory. Over the past few years, Polish authorities have tightened enforcement, platforms have begun checking compliance more aggressively, and the cost of getting it wrong has skyrocketed. The message is pretty clear: environmental compliance isn’t optional any more, regardless of whether your business is based in Warsaw, Berlin or Lisbon. If you sell physical products to customers in Poland, you’re playing by Polish environmental rules.

The key takeaway is surprisingly simple: most e-commerce businesses selling packaged goods in Poland must register in the BDO system and follow its ongoing obligations. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a micro-brand shipping handmade candles, a growing Shopify store using a fulfillment center, or a marketplace seller sending private-label goods from another EU country. If your product arrives in packaging, BDO sees you as someone who introduces that packaging into the Polish market. And that means paperwork, reporting, and an obligation to display your BDO number publicly.

The good news is that once you understand how the system works, the rules are not as mysterious as they seem. BDO has a clear purpose: to track waste, encourage recycling and make sure the businesses generating packaging contribute to managing the environmental impact. The bad news is that failing to register can lead to eye-watering fines and, starting from 2025 and 2026 depending on the platform, even the risk of having your seller account blocked.

In the sections that follow, we’ll break the topic down in a way that actually makes sense for everyday online sellers. You’ll learn what BDO is, who needs to register, how the process works, what obligations come afterward, how much it costs, and what changes are coming next. Whether you’re a one-person operation shipping orders from your living room or a small team running a cross-border shop, understanding BDO is now a core part of doing business in Poland. Let’s make it simple.

What Is the BDO System?

Definition of BDO and Its Purpose

To understand why everyone in the Polish e-commerce space keeps talking about BDO, you first need to know what it actually is. The name itself — Baza Danych o Produktach i Opakowaniach oraz o Gospodarce Odpadami — looks intimidating at first glance, especially if you don’t speak Polish, but the idea behind it is much simpler. BDO is a nationwide database managed by Poland’s Ministry of Climate and Environment, created to track packaging and products introduced to the Polish market and to monitor how businesses handle the waste connected to their operations.

In everyday terms, BDO acts like a giant accountability tool. Every business that places packaging on the Polish market — whether through manufacturing, importing, shipping or repackaging — is required to report exactly how much packaging they introduce and what type it is. The system is meant to ensure that companies take responsibility for the waste they generate, contribute financially to recycling efforts and meet Poland’s environmental targets. If your product arrives in a cardboard box, plastic mailer, glass container or foil wrap, BDO sees you as part of that waste system.

Legal Foundations of the System

The whole structure is rooted in law rather than just administrative guidelines. The key legal backbone is the Waste Act of December 14, 2012, which has been amended multiple times to align with evolving EU environmental policies and recycling standards. Over the years, the scope of the rules has expanded, and obligations for businesses have become more detailed.

These amendments aren’t just legal fine-print. They define how e-commerce sellers must report their packaging, how recycling fees are calculated and which businesses must register before they even start operating in Poland. They also reflect the EU’s growing push toward circularity and the upcoming changes under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. So even if your online shop started out small, the regulatory environment around packaging has grown more complex — and BDO sits at the center of that change.

Why It Matters for E-commerce and Cross-Border Sellers

For online sellers, BDO matters because e-commerce has become one of the biggest generators of packaging waste in Poland. Every order you ship to a customer in Poznań, Wrocław or Szczecin adds another box, envelope or wrapper to the waste system. According to Polish law, the business responsible for placing that packaging on the market is the seller — even if you ship from another EU country, even if a fulfillment center handles the packing and even if your business is still relatively small.

This is where many cross-border entrepreneurs get caught off guard. It’s easy to assume that compliance ends at your home country’s border, but environmental responsibility follows the destination, not the origin. If your products arrive at a Polish doorstep, you become responsible for the packaging footprint they create. That’s why large marketplaces like Amazon and Allegro have begun requiring sellers to provide BDO or EPR numbers: they are under pressure to ensure the businesses operating on their platforms comply with local environmental rules, and failure to meet those requirements can lead to account restrictions.

In practical terms, understanding BDO has become just as crucial as understanding VAT, customs or platform fees. It’s part of the basic toolkit every modern online seller needs when operating in Poland. The system might look bureaucratic at first, but once you grasp the purpose behind it — transparency, accountability and proper waste management — the rules start to make sense. And for e-commerce founders aged 25 to 35, especially those building cross-border brands, BDO is now simply a standard part of doing business.

Who Must Register in BDO?

Obligated Entities

The first thing you need to understand about BDO is that the system is built around one core idea: if your business brings packaging into the Polish market, you’re responsible for it. And for most e-commerce sellers, that responsibility begins the moment a customer in Poland receives a parcel with your product inside. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a solo founder shipping from your living room or a growing brand working with suppliers, warehouses or fulfillment partners — if your goods arrive in packaging, you fall under the definition of an entity introducing packaging into the Polish market.

For businesses selling physical goods online, this means the obligation is almost automatic. When you send an order packed in a cardboard box, foil mailer, glass jar or any kind of protective wrap, you are contributing to Poland’s packaging waste stream. Under the Waste Act, that makes you the “introducer” of that packaging. From a legal standpoint, it doesn’t matter if the product is manufactured in Poland, elsewhere in the EU or outside of it. What matters is where the packaging ends up, and if the parcel lands in Poland, you’re part of the Polish waste system.

Foreign sellers often assume that compliance ends in their home country, but this isn’t how packaging responsibility works. If you ship directly from another EU country to a customer in Poland, you’re still treated as the party placing that packaging on the market. Intra-EU distance sales are explicitly included in the definition, so even if you’ve never physically operated in Poland, the moment you deliver packaged goods there, you carry the same obligations as a local business.

This also applies when someone else handles the packaging for you. Many e-commerce sellers use fulfillment centers, dropshipping partners or external warehouses that select packaging materials and prepare parcels. But legally, you remain the responsible entity because the packaging is introduced on your behalf. Whether the fulfillment center chooses the box size, applies labels or combines orders doesn’t change your role. You are still the one introducing the packaging into Poland, so the obligation to register in BDO stays with you.

Private-label sellers and import-based shops fall under the same rule. When you import finished products that already come in packaging — whether it’s cosmetics, accessories, supplements, electronics or home goods — you are the one bringing that packaging into the Polish market. Even if the goods arrive ready to ship, the law treats you as the introducer. The same applies if a manufacturer produces branded or white-label products for your business and you send them into Poland through any sales channel.

The last group worth mentioning are sellers operating through large marketplaces like Allegro or Amazon. There’s a lot of talk about these platforms requiring BDO numbers, and the situation is evolving quickly. While Polish law does not yet impose a specific statutory obligation on marketplaces to verify BDO registrations, the platforms have already strengthened their internal compliance rules. They are doing this proactively because of increasing EU-level responsibilities under the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). In practice, many sellers will find that platforms expect valid BDO or EPR numbers as part of keeping an active account. The obligation comes from platform policy rather than a direct Polish statute, but the effect is the same: if you want to keep selling, you need to be registered.

Taken together, all of these scenarios point to the same conclusion. If you sell physical goods to Polish customers and the products arrive in packaging of any kind, you are almost certainly required to register in BDO. There are no turnover thresholds, no exemptions for startups and no exceptions for small brands. The system is built to capture exactly these day-to-day commercial activities, and the obligation applies before you even start operating.

Exemptions

Although the BDO rules are broad, there are a few situations where registration is not required. The most straightforward exemption applies to businesses that do not introduce packaging to the Polish market at all and generate only internal waste that is handled by municipal waste services. If your activity does not involve shipping products, producing packaged goods or repacking anything, you are outside the scope of BDO. This is typical for service-based companies or very small local operations where nothing is sent to customers in physical form.

Digital-only sellers are also exempt. If your shop offers only intangible goods — like online courses, downloadable templates, e-books or digital subscriptions — you are not generating packaging waste. No physical product means no packaging, and without packaging there is no obligation to register. This is one of the clearest and simplest exclusions in the system.

Finally, Polish law recognizes certain non-professional, occasional or agricultural activities as outside the scope of commercial packaging introduction. These exceptions are narrow and apply mostly to individuals selling items casually rather than running a structured business. It’s important to note that this exemption does not apply to anyone operating a typical online shop. Even micro-entrepreneurs shipping a handful of orders per month are considered to be conducting professional activity and must register if their goods arrive in packaging.

The general rule is easy to remember: if you sell physical products in packaging to customers in Poland, assume you must register in BDO. The exemptions are real, but they are limited to businesses that do not generate packaging waste or do not operate commercially. For most modern e-commerce sellers — especially young founders building EU-wide brands — BDO is simply part of the compliance landscape you need to navigate.

How to Register in BDO

Registration Process

Registering in the BDO system may look intimidating at first, especially if Polish isn’t your native language, but the actual process is relatively straightforward once you know where to start. Everything happens online through the official government portal at rejestr-bdo.mos.gov.pl. This platform is the central place for submitting applications, updating company details, filing annual reports and managing all communication with the authorities. The entire system is electronic, which means you don’t need to visit any office or send paper forms — everything is handled digitally.

One key rule stands above the rest: you must register before you begin any activity that introduces packaging into the Polish market. If you plan to sell or ship packaged goods to customers in Poland, the application needs to be submitted and approved before you send your first parcel. Operating without registration isn’t treated lightly, and even small online shops are expected to comply from day one.

The application form asks for standard business information, including your legal details, identification numbers, and the nature of your activity. You must also select the appropriate BDO categories that describe how your business introduces packaging or products into the market. You don’t need detailed packaging weights during registration — those become relevant later when you start keeping records and submitting your annual reports. At this stage, the goal is to correctly identify what your business does and under which categories it should be registered.

While many entrepreneurs complete the registration on their own, you can also work with specialized environmental compliance companies. These service providers can select the right categories, fill out the application and communicate with the authorities on your behalf. This option is especially useful for foreign sellers or businesses dealing with multiple product types, but it’s not a requirement. For most small e-commerce shops, handling the registration yourself is completely manageable.

Once the application is submitted, it is reviewed by the regional authority responsible for environmental matters — the Marshal of the Voivodeship (Marszałek Województwa). Even though you interact only with the online portal, it is this regional office that officially approves your entry. Processing times vary depending on the voivodeship, but it typically takes anywhere from several days to a few weeks. When your application is approved, you receive your official BDO number and can begin operating legally under the system.

Costs and Fees (2025)

The BDO fee structure for 2025 is very simple and based solely on the size of your business. Micro-entrepreneurs pay 200 PLN, while all other businesses pay 800 PLN. This fee applies both to the initial registration and to the annual renewal, so you know exactly what to expect each year. There are no extra charges for being active in multiple categories, meaning one fee covers all your declared activities within the system.

This flat-fee approach makes budgeting and planning easier, and it also removes the guesswork around calculating costs if your business grows or adds new product lines. Whether you import private-label cosmetics, ship handmade accessories or use fulfillment centers for repacked goods, the annual cost remains the same.

It’s also important to remember that the annual fee must be paid by the end of February. Keeping your registration active is crucial not only for legal compliance but also for your daily operations. Your BDO number appears on invoices, e-invoices issued through KSeF, your website and business documents. If you operate on marketplaces like Allegro or Amazon, an inactive or outdated BDO entry can cause disruptions, since these platforms increasingly require up-to-date environmental compliance documentation.

Overall, the BDO fees are relatively small compared to the potential fines for operating without registration. Treating the annual payment as a standard part of your business costs makes compliance much easier to manage and helps you avoid unnecessary complications later on.

Ongoing Obligations for E-commerce Sellers

Documentation & Record-Keeping

Once your business is registered in BDO, the next step is learning how to stay compliant on a day-to-day basis. This starts with keeping proper records of the packaging you introduce into the Polish market. It may sound tedious, but it’s the backbone of the entire system. The authorities expect every seller to maintain accurate, ongoing documentation of the types of packaging they use and the amounts placed on the market throughout the year.

For most e-commerce businesses, this means tracking the materials used in your shipments — cardboard boxes, paper fillers, plastic envelopes, foil wraps, glass containers and any other packaging component that accompanies a product when it reaches a Polish customer. These records become the foundation for your annual BDO report, but they also serve as proof during inspections, which can happen unexpectedly.

The key here is consistency. You don’t have to be perfect from day one, but you do need a method that works for your business. Some sellers record packaging weight per shipment, others calculate it per product, and some rely on their recovery organization or logistics partner for structured templates. What matters is that the records exist, they’re kept up to date and they reflect the reality of your packaging use. Without this documentation, preparing the annual report becomes almost impossible — and running your business legally becomes risky.

Annual Reporting Duties

Every e-commerce seller registered in BDO must submit an annual report summarizing the total amount of packaging introduced into the Polish market during the previous calendar year. This report is filed electronically through the BDO portal and must be submitted by March 15 each year. The deadline is strict, and the report must be written in Polish, which can add a bit of pressure for foreign sellers.

The report consolidates all your packaging documentation into a single official statement. This is where your year-round record-keeping pays off, because you’ll need to provide detailed information about each type of packaging material used. The authorities use this report to verify whether businesses are meeting their environmental responsibilities, including recycling targets and recovery fees.

Submitting the report late — or not at all — isn’t something you want to risk. Delays can lead to administrative issues, fines or additional scrutiny during inspections. In some cases, late reporting also complicates your cooperation with Producer Responsibility Organizations or marketplace compliance checks. The safest approach is to prepare your documentation gradually throughout the year, so that by March, the report is just a matter of compiling what you already have.

Marking and Display Requirements (Corrected)

Once your business receives its BDO number, you need to use it in the right places — but it’s important to be clear about what is legally required and what is simply good practice. Polish law obligates businesses introducing packaging into the market to include the BDO number on certain official documents, especially those connected to waste handling or packaging-related operations. The most common examples are invoices issued in business-to-business contexts where environmental obligations may apply, as well as documents connected to waste transfer. These documents must identify the business clearly, and the BDO number is part of that identification when the transaction falls within the scope of the Waste Act.

For regular retail invoices — the kind you issue to everyday online shoppers — the law does not explicitly require the BDO number to appear. Many sellers choose to include it anyway because it signals compliance and avoids confusion when dealing with partners or platforms that expect it, but it’s not a universal obligation. The same applies to e-invoices issued through the KSeF system. KSeF does not automatically require the BDO number in every invoice; it simply provides the structure in which businesses may include it when needed, particularly for transactions connected to packaging-related activities.

One area where many entrepreneurs misunderstand the rules is website display. There is no legal requirement to place the BDO number in the footer of your online shop or on your homepage. Still, many businesses do this voluntarily because customers, logistics partners and marketplaces increasingly look for visible confirmation of environmental compliance. Including the number on your site can reduce back-and-forth communication and helps build trust, but it’s a recommendation, not a legal mandate.

Where things get stricter is on marketplaces. Platforms like Allegro and Amazon have been steadily tightening their internal compliance rules and may request your BDO or EPR registration details as part of their seller verification process. This requirement doesn’t come from Polish law directly but from the platform’s own efforts to prepare for incoming EU regulations and shared responsibility rules. For sellers, this means that even if the law doesn’t force you to display the BDO number publicly everywhere, a platform may still expect you to provide it or verify it in order to keep your account active.

The safest approach is to ensure your BDO number appears on all documents that legally require it and to make it easily accessible for partners or platforms that ask for proof of compliance. While the rules aren’t as broad as many people assume, transparency remains an important part of running an online business in Poland — and having your BDO number ready and visible where appropriate helps keep everything running smoothly.

Cooperation With Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs)

Another major part of ongoing BDO compliance is fulfilling your recycling and recovery obligations. In Poland, most businesses — especially small and medium-sized e-commerce shops — meet these obligations by working with a Producer Responsibility Organization, often called a PRO. These organizations handle the complicated environmental requirements on your behalf, from calculating recycling fees to ensuring the correct amount of packaging is recovered or recycled each year.

A PRO essentially takes the administrative and operational burden off your shoulders. They collect fees based on the type and weight of your packaging and then use those funds to meet national recycling targets. For many sellers, especially those importing or shipping multiple product types, this cooperation is the easiest and safest way to remain compliant without having to navigate the system independently.

Working with a PRO doesn’t replace your reporting obligations, but it does simplify the financial and environmental side of the process. You still need to track your packaging, submit your annual BDO report and keep your records in order, but a PRO ensures that your recycling and recovery responsibilities are properly handled. This is particularly helpful for foreign sellers who might not be familiar with local environmental rules or for small businesses that don’t have the resources to manage recycling obligations themselves.

Penalties and Enforcement

Running an online business in Poland comes with plenty of things to think about — suppliers, customers, shipping, returns — but environmental compliance is one area where you don’t want any surprises. The BDO system is designed to create a clear and traceable path for every piece of packaging introduced into the Polish market. When a business skips registration, ignores reporting deadlines or keeps no records, it doesn’t just break a rule; it breaks that traceability chain the entire system depends on. And the law treats this seriously.

The most severe penalties apply to businesses that should have registered in BDO but didn’t. Polish law sets specific administrative fine ranges for this situation, and they can be significant — from 5,000 PLN up to 1,000,000 PLN, depending on the scale and circumstances. The size of your business or your turnover doesn’t matter. Even a small online shop shipping a few dozen parcels per month can face the same legal consequences as a larger company if it operates without the required registration. What matters is whether you introduced packaging into the market before registering, not how many shipments you sent.

A second major area of enforcement concerns documentation. If your business can’t provide clear and consistent records of the packaging you placed on the market, it creates a gap in the system. Inspectors — whether from the Marshal of the Voivodeship or environmental inspection offices — can appear without prior notice and ask to see your packaging records. Missing records, incomplete data or inconsistencies between your documentation and your annual report can all result in fines. For many sellers, poor record-keeping isn’t intentional; it’s simply the result of not having a system in place. But legally, the reason doesn’t matter — the obligation to maintain ongoing packaging documentation applies universally.

Annual reporting is a similar story. Every registered business must submit its BDO report by March 15 each year, summarizing the previous year’s packaging activity. Submitting late, submitting incorrect information or not submitting at all can all trigger penalties. These issues also make it harder to work smoothly with your Producer Responsibility Organization, since PROs rely on your annual report to calculate recycling obligations. For some sellers, late reporting can even prompt additional scrutiny that spreads into other aspects of the business.

There are also penalties related to waste transport, but this area deserves some clarification. Polish law requires businesses that professionally or systematically transport waste to have the proper BDO registration and documentation. For most e-commerce sellers, this is not a daily concern, because you’re not typically transporting waste as part of your core business. However, situations can arise where damaged, defective or unsellable goods are classified as waste rather than products. If a business begins moving such waste without the proper registration or documentation, fines can apply. The key nuance is that normal courier returns or standard shipments do not fall under waste-transport rules. The problem only arises when a company is actually transporting waste, not selling or returning products.

Outside of government enforcement, modern marketplaces are becoming another layer of control. Allegro has already announced that starting in August 2025, sellers may face account restrictions or sales blocks if they cannot demonstrate BDO or EPR compliance. By 2026, similar controls are expected to spread more widely across major platforms, especially as EU-level packaging rules take effect under the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). While these platform requirements aren’t formal legal obligations under Polish law (at least not yet), they operate in parallel to the legal system — and for sellers, being blocked from a marketplace feels just as real as any government penalty.

In extreme cases, the law also allows for criminal liability. This applies mainly to deliberate or large-scale violations, such as falsifying reports, handling hazardous waste illegally or engaging in activities that cause significant environmental harm. Typical e-commerce sellers are unlikely to face these situations, but the framework exists and shows how seriously Poland treats environmental oversight.

Overall, the penalty system isn’t designed to catch honest entrepreneurs off guard — it’s meant to ensure everyone plays by the same rules. If you register on time, keep your packaging records in order, file your annual report and cooperate with a reliable PRO, compliance becomes a routine part of running your business. The fines and enforcement tools exist mostly to deal with businesses that ignore the system entirely. For sellers who take their responsibilities seriously, BDO doesn’t need to be something to fear; it just becomes another part of running a responsible e-commerce operation.

Upcoming Changes (2025–2027)

New PPWR and EPR Requirements Impacting Marketplace Sellers

The next few years will be a transition period where packaging rules across the EU become more unified, and the room for “creative interpretation” shrinks. The main driver behind this is the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, usually called PPWR. Unlike the old directive, which every country transposed into its own laws, PPWR will apply directly in all Member States. That means one common rulebook for packaging, with less national improvisation and fewer loopholes.

For e-commerce and marketplace sellers, this mostly shows up as a tightening of Extended Producer Responsibility. In simple terms, if you introduce packaging into the EU market, you are responsible for it — financially and operationally — all the way to its end-of-life. If you’re already registered in BDO, this idea won’t feel new, but PPWR makes it more precise and more consistent between countries.

PPWR will also bring clearer criteria for what “recyclable packaging” actually means, introduce design requirements and restrict some packaging types that are considered unnecessary or too difficult to recycle. Implementation is phased: some rules will start to bite around 2025, while others, especially the stricter recyclability requirements and material bans, will come into force closer to 2030. For you as a seller, the practical takeaway is that your choice of packaging materials will matter more and more. Cheap but hard-to-recycle options may technically still be legal for a while, but they are moving in the wrong direction.

If you sell into multiple EU countries, PPWR is actually good news in the long run. Instead of dealing with a patchwork of slightly different national systems, you’ll increasingly be working with aligned expectations. Poland, with BDO already in place, is more prepared than many markets — but the bar is rising everywhere.

Enforcement Tightening on Amazon, Allegro and Other Platforms

One of the biggest shifts you’ll feel day-to-day won’t come from a government office, but from the platforms you use. Marketplaces like Allegro and Amazon are being pushed into a new role: not just sales facilitators, but gatekeepers of environmental compliance.

Allegro has already announced a roadmap where, from August 2025, environmental requirements will tighten and sellers who can’t prove compliance — including providing valid BDO or EPR numbers where required — may see their accounts restricted or their ability to list products reduced. By 2026, this kind of verification is expected to become more standard across large platforms, particularly in connection with PPWR and stricter EPR enforcement.

Amazon is on a similar path at the EU level. You may have already seen requests to upload proof of EPR registration in various categories. Over time, this will not be limited to just a few product types. As responsibilities for packaging become clearer under PPWR, platforms will increasingly demand that sellers prove they have fulfilled their environmental obligations in each market they sell into, including Poland.

For you as an e-commerce seller, this means compliance becomes a prerequisite for even participating on major platforms. Even if an inspector never knocks on your door, Amazon or Allegro can simply stop you from selling if your documentation is missing, outdated or inconsistent. Environmental compliance stops being “nice to have” paperwork and becomes a basic condition for being visible to customers.

Poland’s Deposit-Return System and What It Means for E-commerce

Another big change on the horizon in Poland is the national deposit-return system for beverage packaging, known locally as the system kaucyjny. Legally, the framework sets 1 January 2025 as the start date, but in practice, most observers expect a phased rollout, with full, stable operation closer to late 2025. So you’ll see the system appear in stages rather than as a single “switch-on” moment.

The deposit-return system will mainly cover beverage packaging: for example, certain PET bottles, metal cans and selected glass bottles. Customers will pay a small deposit when buying a drink and get it back when they return the empty packaging to a collection point. For physical retail, this means reverse vending machines, collection stands and new logistics around returning empties.

For e-commerce, the impact depends heavily on what you sell. If your business doesn’t touch beverages, the system won’t impose direct new obligations on you, at least initially. You’ll see it more as part of the general landscape of how Poland handles packaging.

But if you do sell beverages in covered packaging to Polish customers, things change. You’ll be pulled into the deposit system, which may mean:

being part of the formal deposit structure for the packaging you place on the market,

adapting your product listings and labels to reflect deposit details,

coordinating with system operators or partners about how returned packaging is handled.

The exact practical obligations will depend on your role in the supply chain and how the system operators structure e-commerce participation, but the general direction is clear: beverage packaging will be tracked more closely, and the cost of ignoring these rules will go up over time.

Expected Future Updates Shaping E-commerce Compliance

Looking a bit further out toward 2026 and 2027, a few trends are almost certain to define the compliance environment for online sellers.

First, packaging that is hard to recycle or purely decorative is going to become a problem. PPWR is pushing hard against unnecessary packaging, multi-layer materials that are difficult to process and formats that don’t fit well into recycling streams. If your brand identity relies heavily on complex, mixed-material packaging, you’ll likely need to rethink it. Customers may still love the “unboxing experience,” but regulators are increasingly uninterested in packaging that generates more waste than necessary.

Second, cross-border enforcement will get stronger. Historically, distance sellers could sometimes “hide” behind the fact that they operated from another Member State and that national systems weren’t fully connected. That window is closing. As EU digital systems, EPR registries and packaging databases become more integrated, authorities in one country will be better able to see what’s happening across borders. For a seller, this means that being compliant in one market doesn’t automatically cover you in another — but it also means that the expectations you face will gradually align.

Third, your relationship with Producer Responsibility Organizations is likely to evolve. As recycling and recovery targets increase, PROs may adjust their fee structures, tighten their data requirements and expect more precise information about your packaging. You might see higher costs for certain materials and discounts or incentives for more sustainable options. For many e-commerce brands, this will be a financial nudge to choose smarter packaging, not just from a branding perspective but from a cost perspective as well.

Put together, the period from 2025 to 2027 is less about a single dramatic change and more about a steady tightening of the rules. Environmental compliance will move from the margins of your to-do list into the core of how you design products, choose packaging and select markets. The upside is that once these systems are in place, the playing field becomes fairer: everyone selling into Poland — and the rest of the EU — will gradually be held to the same standards, whether they’re a local shop or a big cross-border marketplace seller.

If you prepare early, register properly, keep your records in order and choose packaging with the future in mind, you’ll be in a much better position than those who wait for the rules to catch up with them.

Key Resources & Further Reading

When you’re navigating compliance systems like BDO, PPWR or broader EPR rules, knowing where to find reliable information makes everything far less overwhelming. Regulations shift, interpretations evolve, and different institutions publish updates on different timelines. For e-commerce sellers — especially those operating from outside Poland — the best approach is to follow a mix of official sources, industry guidance and marketplace announcements. Each one plays a slightly different role, and together they give you the full picture of what’s required.

The first and most authoritative place to check is the official BDO portal at rejestr-bdo.mos.gov.pl. This is the core system for everything related to the register: submitting your initial application, making updates, filing your annual report, checking your activity categories and managing any waste documentation. The portal always reflects the current technical and procedural requirements. What it doesn’t always do is explain the legal interpretations behind those rules in a simple way — especially in situations involving foreign sellers or more complex business setups. Still, whenever you need the official form or the exact steps the system expects you to follow, the BDO portal is where you’ll find it.

Alongside the portal, the website of GIOŚ — the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection — is another crucial source. GIOŚ is the main enforcement body for waste and packaging regulations in Poland. They publish technical notices, clarifications, inspection updates and information about how the system functions in practice. Their explanations tend to be formal and sometimes a bit dry, but they offer valuable insight into how authorities interpret the law. Whenever you want confirmation of a rule or need to understand how inspections work, GIOŚ is the most reliable authority.

For practical matters related specifically to registration, the “Marszałek Województwa” pages for each Polish region are useful. Each regional office is responsible for approving or rejecting BDO registrations and handling local administrative issues related to the register. They may publish processing times, contact details, application tips or updates relevant to their region. They don’t provide broad EPR or EU-level compliance guidance, but if your registration is pending or you need clarification on a local procedure, this is the right place to look.

Beyond official channels, several well-established industry sources provide excellent support to sellers. Companies like Deutsche Recycling, ekologistyka24, Circular-Pro or Interzero regularly publish guides, checklists and summaries of upcoming regulatory changes. Their content is written in practical language rather than legal jargon, which makes it much easier to understand what you actually need to do. These sources are especially useful for cross-border sellers, because they explain Polish obligations in a way that makes sense to businesses outside the country. They also tend to report upcoming changes earlier than official government sites, since they monitor legislative drafts and consultations closely.

Polish accounting and legal blogs are also worth keeping an eye on. Platforms like ifirma and major law firms often translate new rules into examples that feel familiar to online sellers — scenarios about small shops, marketplaces, returns or imports. These posts help bridge the gap between dry legal text and everyday operations. They don’t replace official sources, but they make the information easier to digest and apply.

Finally, marketplaces themselves have become surprisingly important sources of compliance information. Allegro, Amazon and other large platforms are increasingly publishing updates about environmental obligations, especially as they tighten their seller verification procedures. Since many sellers rely on these platforms for most of their sales, marketplace announcements can sometimes matter as much as formal legal deadlines. If a platform says it will require a BDO or EPR number on a certain date, that date is effectively a compliance deadline for you — regardless of whether the law has formally changed.

In short, no single resource gives you everything. The BDO portal provides the official process, GIOŚ explains enforcement, the Marszałek handles registration decisions, industry guides simplify the rules, and marketplaces show you what’s expected in practice. By consulting a combination of these sources, you can stay on top of changes, avoid misunderstandings and keep your e-commerce business aligned with Polish environmental obligations.

Conclusion

Selling online in Poland is full of opportunities, but it also comes with responsibilities that every e-commerce entrepreneur needs to understand. The BDO system may feel technical at first, but once you break it down, it follows a simple logic: if your products arrive in packaging, and that packaging ends up in Poland, you’re part of Poland’s waste ecosystem — and the law expects you to take responsibility for it. That responsibility starts with registering before you begin, keeping proper records, filing your annual report, and making sure your packaging obligations are handled correctly through either your own actions or with the help of a Producer Responsibility Organization.

Staying compliant doesn’t just protect you from fines. It also protects your ability to sell. As environmental rules tighten across the EU and marketplaces step into a stronger enforcement role, having your BDO number in place and your paperwork consistent becomes just as important as managing your inventory or keeping your reviews positive. Platforms like Allegro and Amazon are already preparing for higher environmental standards, and sellers who don’t keep up may find themselves facing account restrictions long before any government inspector gets involved.

The coming years will only deepen these trends. With the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation rolling out, packaging design, recyclability, data reporting and transparency will matter more than ever. Cross-border selling won’t be a loophole anymore — the rules are becoming unified, and oversight is becoming more connected. For young entrepreneurs building modern e-commerce brands, adapting to this environment is part of running a resilient business.

If you take away one thing from this guide, let it be this: check whether your business needs a BDO registration, and do it early. It doesn’t matter whether you ship ten parcels a month or a thousand. If your products reach Polish customers in packaging, the safest assumption is that you must register and follow the ongoing obligations. Once you’re in the system and understand how the process works, compliance becomes just another part of your routine, not something to be afraid of.

By staying informed, choosing your packaging wisely, and keeping your documents in order, you can focus on what actually matters — growing your business, serving your customers and building a brand that’s ready not just for today’s requirements but for the future of e-commerce in Europe.