Germany Packaging Machinery Market Research Report - PMMI

For this waste treatment, the manufacturers pay a fee to the Dual System. However, the fee payers—
now more than 18,500 firms—all complain that the costs are too high.
From the beginning, the ordinance was very controversial. Only after the introduction of the Product
Recycling and Waste Management Act, and with regard to necessary adjustments to bring it into line
with the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, a revision was accepted in August 1998. This
laid down higher quotas for the recycling of used consumer packaging, staggered according to the type
of materials. The focus remains on the avoidance and recycling of packaging waste; also in the future
manufacturers and distributors are obligated to take back the packaging and return it to the cycle as far
as possible.
The Dual System must present annual proof to the environment ministries of the German federal states
that it has fulfilled its responsibilities in a proper way. Companies that do not participate in the Dual
System are responsible for the taking back, recycling, and documenting of their own used consumer
packaging, with the same recycling quota. As a result, several separate private waste disposal
companies were established, and the Duales System Deutschland AG reduced its license fees.
The ‘Grüne Punkt’ (Green Dot) (see section 5.4.1 above) now appears on consumer packaging not only
in Germany but in 13 other countries as a symbol for the financing of collection, sorting, and recycling
of packaging through the “Dual System” (see section 5.4.2 above).
For packaging waste arising in households, collection is divided into two different systems. With the
‘collect system’ on the one hand, packaging of plastic, composite materials, aluminum, and tin are
placed by consumers into “yellow bins” or “yellow sacks” and collected directly from individual
households by the waste disposal partners of the Dual System. In some places, paper is also collected
in this way. With the ‘bring system,’ on the other hand, the collected packaging is brought by
consumers to recycling centers or recycling containers, located in the vicinity of the household. Glass,
sorted by color, and paper/cardboard/cartons are mainly collected in this way.
6.2.1.2 Contents of the Packaging Ordinance of 1998
Article 1 deals with the objectives of the Ordinance, as mentioned in the previous section.
The purpose of this Ordinance is to avoid or reduce the environmental impacts of waste arising
from packaging. Packaging waste shall in the first instance be avoided; reuse of packaging,
recycling and other forms of recovery shall otherwise take priority over the disposal of packaging
waste. By 30 June 2001, the share of all packaging waste being recovered shall be 65% by
weight and the share being recycled shall be 45% by weight. The Federal Government shall
conduct the necessary surveys.
The Ordinance applies to all packaging put into circulation, regardless of its material and where it
arises, insofar as it is not covered by any other special regulations. (Article 2)
Manufacturers and distributors are obliged under Article 4 to accept returned transport packaging.
Under Article 5 the distributor is responsible for the removal or return of secondary packaging. In all
large German supermarkets, various containers are to be seen at the exits, in which the customers can
immediately dispose of secondary packaging, sorted into paper and plastic, after paying for their goods.
The following sections contain the precise text of the relevant Articles: