Germany to toughen collection rules as recycling scheme comes under fire

Issue date: 13.11.07

Germany wants to close loopholes in household packaging waste collection by forcing all suppliers of consumer packaging to pay a licence fee to join the Green Dot recycling scheme, or similar initiatives.

The Bundestag, the German lower house of parliament, has proposed reforms to the Packaging Ordinance (GPO) law, which aims to strengthen the system but has been criticised in recent months for being open to freeloading.

The reforms also seek to avoid the "miscalculation" of waste by tightening the distinction between commercial packaging and waste collected from homes.

Commercial waste remains exempt from licence fees, but firms must ensure that it contains no waste from households.

Only companies that pay a licence fee are legally allowed to display the Green Dot – or Der Grüne Punkt – symbol, which exempts them from the legal requirement to take back and recycle household packaging waste.

However, firms that have illegally printed the label have so far gone unpunished.

Environment minister Sigmar Gabriel said the reforms would ensure future waste collection remained "user friendly" and would allow for further developments.

"The waste of freeloaders will no longer be paid for at the expense of other distributors," he said.

The reforms to the GPO still have to be ratified by the Bundesrat, the upper house.

The GPO came into force in 1991 and places responsibility for packaging with the whole supply chain.

The Green Dot system was launched by former monopoly Duales System Deutschland, but has since been adopted by several other countries.