Global Bottle Bill Summit held in Berlin, Germany
April 24 through 27, beverage container recycling advocates from around the globe convened at the first-ever global deposit summit meeting. The three-day series of meetings and presentations about container recycling was attended by experts from Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, and the US.
The summit opened with a reception and keynote address featuring Mr. Clemens Stroetmann, State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Environment (retired). Mr. Stroetmann discussed the German deposit system for non-refillable containers. Germany has had a national deposit system in place since 2005; it covers both refillable and one-way containers.
The conference was designed as an opportunity for professionals who are doing similar work to meet one another face-to-face to exchange ideas. Representatives from each country with container deposit systems gave presentations on how their systems were implemented and are working.
Others presented progress reports on their campaigns to introduce such systems. Participants were energized by the work that is being done around the globe to advance beverage container reuse and recycling. “Increasing beverage container refilling and recycling can have a considerable impact on the reduction of greenhouse gases, and it was exciting to be part of this truly global initiative,” said Clarissa Morawski, one of Canada's leading container deposit authorities.
Three days of intense meetings were followed by a tour of several retail outlets with both manual and reverse vending machine-based return/refund systems. In addition, participants were treated to a guided tour of sorting and counting operations at a container clearing facility outside of Berlin.
Participants planned to meet again in May of 2009, and to keep in touch in the meantime through a global internet-based communication network.
The summit was organized as a joint project of Germany-based Environment Aid Germany and the Container Recycling Institute.
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