Container and Packaging
Recycling UPDATE
Summer/Fall 2001 Issue

The German government, in March 2001, announced its decision to introduce an amendment to the 1991 Packaging Ordinance. The amendment, introduced by Juergen Trittin, a leading member of the Green Junior Coalition Partners, and a strong supporter of container deposits, would require deposits on all non-refillable beverage containers except wine bottles and aseptic beverage cartons. Trittin said the introduction of a deposit on "ecologically damaging packaging" was aimed at stopping the rise of cans and disposable glass and plastic bottles, and stabilizing market share for reusable and refillable packaging.

On July 13, 2001, Trittin's amendment lost in a close vote (34-36) in the Bundesrat, the legislative body that includes

representatives from each state.

Rather than accept a counterproposal, Trittin stood by the existing law, which requires manufacturers to collect refundable deposits on all one-way, (non-refillable) beverages that fail to meet the 72 percent refillable quota established by the German Packaging Ordinance of 1991.

When the overall rate dropped below 72 percent in 1997, the government intensified monitoring of sales for each beverage market to determine which beverages were not reaching the refillable rate they achieved in the base year of 1991. The table below lists both the individual quotas for each beverage, based on the refillable rates in 1991, and the refillable rates actually achieved in 1999.

The refillable figures for February 1999 to January 2000 must be published in the Federal Gazette of Germany before the deposit requirement goes into effect.

Since carbonated soft drinks met their "refillable" quotas, they are exempt from the mandatory deposit under the original 1991 Packaging Ordinance. In defending his amendment, that would have included all beverages, Trittin argued that the public will be confused if deposits are required on some single-serve beverages such as beer and mineral water and not on others, such as carbonated soft drinks.

An estimated 12.7 billion containers would be effected by the proposed amendment, which would require a refundable deposit of 0.25 euros ($0.25 US) per unit, (0.50 euros for bottles above 1.5 liter volume) on all disposable (non-refillable) mineral water, beer, carbonated soft drink, non-carbonated soft drink containers except aseptic beverage cartons. The extra cost to industry, estimated at less than two pfennigs ($0.009) per container, was described by the Minister of Economy Werner Mueller as "economically bearable".