Starting from 2025, a deposit return system will come into force in Poland. Streams of PET bottles and aluminum cans that will be directed to the deposit return system will no longer be found in the streams delivered to sorting plants intended for municipal waste. So what will be the impact of the deposit return system on the achievement of waste management goals? What economic effects will the facilities feel in connection with the loss of PET packaging and aluminum cans in the structure of waste delivered for sorting?

The title of the article is a challenge in terms of approach and an attempt to answer the question posed in it. Within its framework, it is necessary to pay attention to three elements. Firstly, the focus is on Polish municipal waste sorting facilities. Secondly, their technological level is an interesting issue, and thirdly, the point, from which we look at the facilities, is their ability to prepare waste for recycling. The aim of this article is not only to look at the current technological level of Polish facilities. The text is also about the future and the possibility of shaping their “tomorrow’s” state. What, then, is the current technological level of Polish municipal waste sorting facilities in terms of preparing waste for recycling? What factors will determine the technological level of these facilities in the future?

If the waste law and policy determine the waste management goals, which must be taken into account while preparing a construction or a modernization of a sorting plant, and the market creates the conditions of actions, then technology is a tool, on which the burden of actually achieving the goals is focused on. The real, daily, ecological and economic effects depend on technology.