Recent article summaries from Ekopartner - monthly magazine on the environment and sustainable development
Directive no.
2003/87/EC: Is emission trading an opportunity for Polish companies? Will we
lose or gain profits?
The emission trading system will launch soon - on January 1st 2005 in all 25
European Union countries. This system will be basing on the Cap and Trade formula.
The governments of the member countries are obligated to estimate the total
limits of CO2 emissions for all groups of installations and allocate the amounts
to the appropriate installations. The EnergSys company entered upon a task of
preparing and implementing transferable qualifications system for emissions
in Poland. Energoprojekt Warszawa S.A is a partner of EnergySys. In 1991 Chorzowski
Project has been started. It has proved that emissions from a group of plants
can be reduced in a faster and cheaper way, if all these plants will be treated
as an entire enterprise when giving them permission for the emission allowances
considering environment protection costs. A company with lower costs should
be treated more strictly and a plant with higher costs could be treated in a
better way, but it should ensure that its neighbor, who has a cheaper reduction
process, will make a respectively bigger emission reduction. In Chorzow this
kind of solution was being simulated in 1991 -1992 and it was a good proof that
emission trading can also exist successfully in Poland.
The situation in Poland concerning CO2 emissions is different than in the rest
of the European Union members, which have problems with the implementation of
their obligations. According to the last forecasts, in 2008 -2012 Poland will
emit less amount of CO2 than our limit given to us in Kyoto is. That is why
Poland has different goals - first of all we have to care about good relations
and competitiveness of Polish companies on the European market.
A more expensive but ecological furnace.
The First Euro-
Eco- Energy Conference, which was dedicated to alternative energies, took place
on June in Bydgoszcz. This meeting confirmed that the European Commission's
fears of alternative energies market in Poland are reasonable. Poland can notice
the lack of clear support instruments and dues on governmental works under alternative
energies act. On the other hand chaos is dominating on the local energy market.
Poland has a palette market and companies, which export up to 90% of their production,
but there are no enough researches which would result in the type and production
of installations, where they could be burnt in order to achieve the highest
heat and energy performance.
According to the market's organization the most important tasks for Poland are:
separating products from transfer, permanent accounting and providing appropriate
regulations, which will allow the transfer of competitions from the system market
to the receiver's market. During the Conference some examples of local initiatives
were presented. A good idea was the usage of renewable energy sources for the
projects of public buildings renovation and modernization.
Mercury coffee?
Water contamination
can be hazardous not only for the environment but also for the human's life
and health. Polish government has legislated the 75/464/EWG directive which
is said to protect water from permanent toxic compounds.
Up to 2003/2004 in almost 150 large Polish industrial plants the verification
of water permissions for draining off substances, (which are listed in the first
index of directive toward waters or sewerage system) were made. The verification
showed that almost 50 plants were draining off substances from the list of the
I index, and 80 companies - do not drain substances off at all.
The next step was making an inventory of 1.243 companies, which represented
all types of production and service whose sewage could contain dangerous compounds.
The works showed that in Poland the load factor of sewage by dangerous compounds
from industrial plants isn't large. In only 222 plants one has noticed exceeded
permissible values.
Up to 2007 Poland is obligated to a complete implementation of pollutions reduction
programme for all substances contained in the II index.
Within National Environment Monitoring the programme of surface water quality
observation is being performed. The monitoring embraces river, lake and Baltic
sea waters in over 360 control -measuring points.
Between 2004 and 2007 the approximate costs of national programme realization
will be €114 millions, where €70 millions should be spend in this
and the next year. The main participants of the implementation of the directive
on water contamination caused by some compounds are among others: The Ministry
of Environment, The Ministry of Economy, The Ministry of Agriculture, The Ministry
of Health, local authorities and industrial plants.
MELAMINA III
On June this year, in Pulawy, the official opening of MELAMINA III production
plant took place. The new factory is valued at about 307milions PLN, was under
construction since 2002. MELAMINA III has a production capacity of 30 thousand
tones of melanin per year and is second melanin factory built last time and
third one working next to Nitrogen Plants "Pulawy" S.A. The Nitrogen
Plants concerning their investments are the third biggest producer in the world.
Production capacities have currently increased up to 92 thousand tones, enable
"Pulawy" to hold 10% of the global and 20% of European melanin market.
The next step planned for the development of Nitrogen Plants is building an
installation for melanin recovery from process condensates of MELAMINA II and
MELAMINA III factories. Its nominal production will be over 4 thousand tones
of melanin per year. It will be the second installation of this type in the
world.
Demand for scrap.
The boom in Polish metallurgy has been growing up since autumn last year. Export
and production are increasing, the prices unfortunately too. It also regards
to the prices of the scrap used for steel production. However there are several
differences - prices are going up, but not the scrap supply.
It is estimated that soon the amount of steel production will reach 10 million
tones per year. Currently the annual production of steel in Poland is approximately
9 million tones. In order to produce this amount of steel, 4.5 million tones
of metal scrap are required. The supply of scrap is increasing - in 2000 it
was 5.9 million tones, in 2001 - 5 millions and at the end of 2002 it was approximately
only 4.3 million tones.
In present time the works on the implementation of the 2000/53/WE directive
(which refers to the vehicles taken out of service) are being carried out. The
directive assumes that manufacturers and importers of cars and motors will be
charged for their recycling. According to the currently existing Polish law,
there is a possibility for the removing a vehicle from official registration
(for vehicles taken out of service) after giving back only their parts. Dismantling
can be done at an inappropriate way and at uncontrolled conditions, where the
soil can be contaminated with petroleum derivatives.
The deadline for Poland for the implementation of the 2002/96/EC directive,
which refers to electronic scrap recycling is August this year. Until now the
law requires (the same as in case of recovery and disposal of other wastes)
a permission from the local authorities. All currently given permissions will
be valid up to 2008.
Discussion on the organization of recycling.
32 organizations
are fighting for the customer in the Polish recovery market. In the near future
there will be 10 more. Isn't that too much for the markets capability? Are they
playing fair?
In the previous year the organizations earned together approximately 100 millions
PLN. Specialists estimate that with the increasing of the legal level of package
recovery it will be over 1 billion PLN annually by the year 2007. Well, it is
worth to make efforts in this direction. What a pity that these efforts will
not be quite fair. Some organizations are decreasing the recovered wastes' prices
by artificial means in order to find new customers: producers and local authorities
which according to the law are responsible for wastes management. Part of the
organizations (against previously given promises) don't participate in the purchasing
of waste containers for the selected collection. Thus the municipalities are
forced to buy them. Until now the efforts of recovery organizations were mainly
directed to achieve the monopolist position, because it gives a possibility
of setting prices. Every decision regarding to wastes economy is recognized
with a lot of wasted money. But the most important thing should be fact that
this money ought to be earned in an honest, rightful and regarding public interest
way. Therefore in order to achieve this we do not only need the ecological but
also the economical knowledge.
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