The problem stems from a resolution changing the method of collecting municipal waste from owners of properties not inhabited by residents (Resolution No. 23/270/2020)
An 80-litre waste container in a waiting room
Business owners who previously paid the waste collection fee as part of their rent to the housing cooperative and kept their containers in bins belonging to the cooperative have, since January 2021, been required to designate and prepare a place for waste containers on their own properties. But what happens when there is no such place? The only option left for the owner is to keep the waste container in the waiting room of their premises. This may reduce the number of customers. After all, few people would probably want to wait for a cosmetic treatment sitting next to an 80-litre rubbish bin emptied once a week.
– The City Council passed a resolution stating that we can no longer use the former method of storing rubbish and must instead have separate contracts with MZGK – says the business owner who contacted us. – And from what I have learned, MZGK has to make two trips: one for waste collected from residents and another to collect it from entrepreneurs. People running businesses and having premises in the cooperative must sign a separate waste collection contract. That would not be a problem if it were not for the fact that we have nowhere to store the rubbish containers. In general, the rules say that we must keep the containers on the premises, but some of us run businesses where there is no way to store a rubbish container indoors. You cannot put a container in a waiting room – explains the desperate business owner.
And at the office, it is the same old story: it cannot be done, ma’am
The woman wanted to take advantage of the possibility of leasing land from the city so that she would have somewhere to place the container. But she encountered an unpleasant surprise.
– I contacted the Department of Property and Spatial Management to ask whether it was possible to lease land from the city – says the woman. – It is possible, but the city does not own any land near the business that it could lease for a rubbish-bin enclosure – she adds. The resourceful woman did not give up and asked about the possibility of leasing space for enclosures from the cooperative. This is SM Bolesławianka’s land. But here, too, she reached a dead end.
– The cooperative in whose enclosures I previously kept the container cannot lease them to us under the law – the business owner learned. – And even if it wanted to lease us some nearby space, all the residents of the building would have to consent. A special letter would have to be written, but at the cooperative I was told there was no point hoping for it because the residents would never agree to more rubbish-bin enclosures – the woman recounts.
We wrote to the cooperative about the matter and are awaiting a response. From information provided by the reader, we know that the cooperative is helpless and does not know how to help.
After hearing about the small-business owner’s problem with storing waste, which she has faced since the beginning of the year, one might conclude that the councillors overlooked the fact that some entrepreneurs with premises in the city would be deprived of the possibility of storing waste under normal conditions. Their situation in this respect will significantly worsen.
You pay our taxes for bread, and we hit you in the face with a resolution
We described the problem to City Secretary Jerzy Zieliński, who replied:
Due to the various factual and legal circumstances concerning control of the land adjacent to commercial premises, it is not possible to precisely define all these different factual and legal situations in the provisions of the resolution. A municipal council may not exceed the statutory authority delegated to it in its regulations.
The City Secretary’s explanation suggests that nothing can be done about the resolution, which is unfavorable to entrepreneurs, because it was adopted in accordance with the law—legislation that is itself not suited to people’s actual needs. And entrepreneurs, who pay taxes for the salaries of those who make the laws and those who adopt resolutions based on them, instead of working in peace, are struggling to figure out what to do with their own rubbish. No official is rushing to help.
Response from SM Bolesławianka received on 13 February 2021 at 11:28
To comply with the provisions of Resolution No. XXIII/267/2020 of the Bolesławiec City Council dated 28 October 2020, at the beginning of December last year the Bolesławianka Housing Cooperative sent letters to all entities conducting business activity—natural and legal persons—with which it had agreements, informing them of the obligation to conclude an individual contract for municipal waste collection with a company providing such services and requesting a copy of the concluded contract by 8 January 2021.
Of the 49 entrepreneurs notified, only one presented a signed contract. Only three entrepreneurs contacted the Cooperative in writing to ask it to indicate a place for their waste containers. After the number and capacity of the containers had been established, such places were indicated, but to this day none of them has contacted the relevant estate administration to collect the key to the rubbish-bin enclosure. Entrepreneurs should submit a written request to the Cooperative asking it to indicate a place for their containers.
Best regards, Beata Ślęzak