The German government is considering introducing a system in which all retail retailers are required to offer a reusable alternative for packaging. This would ensure that any discarded material is returned for recycling and reuse.
Professionals in the metal packaging industry believe that this measure will affect the proper functioning of deposit systems and the competitiveness of small businesses and recalls that, in the EU, this requirement only arises for large surfaces.
The new draft packaging law being worked on by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) includes the introduction of a mandatory reusable offer for all final distributors of packaging as a major new feature. A move that has not gone down well with the German non-ferrous metals industry, represented by the associations Alumin (AD) and WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle (WVMetalle).
The two industry organizations are not happy with the fact that there is no specific regulation at EU level. Roland Leder, vice-president president of Aluminium Deutschland, says of the German government’s approach: “The amendment of the Packaging Act is a German single-handedly incomprehensible to our industry.
According to the German ministry, the proposal will affect at least 16,000 points in Germany. For AD and WVMDetail, “is not suitable on scientific principles. This could displace packaging with beverage cans, which play an important role in environmentally optimized packaging systems alongside reusables. Cans are almost entirely returned to citizen stores so that they can be reintroduced into the cycle.”
“In order to increase the consumer’s freedom of choice and the freedom of choice of companies, often microenterprise kiosks, is very restricted,” Leder reiterated. Moreover, “in order to guarantee that consumers make use of the reusable offer, the plan contains far-reaching interventions on the prices. We consider that the competitiveness thus achieved is extremely questionable”.
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