Aluminium Association: Germany is taking a special path with the amendment to the Packaging Act

The German non-ferrous metals industry, represented by the two industry associations Aluminium Deutschland (AD) and WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle (WVMetalle), supports the strengthening of ecologically beneficial reusable, take-back and deposit systems, as called for in the coalition agreement. However, AD and WVMetalle criticise the fact that theThe expected EU regulations are not taken into account.

„The amendment to the Packaging Act is a German solo effort that is incomprehensible for our industry. In view of the planned new EU regulation, the German government's actions are not efficient.“

Roland Leder, President of WVMetalle and Vice President of Aluminium Germany

Display

The main new regulation of the draft is the introduction of a reusable packaging obligation for all final distributors of packaging. According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, this affects at least 16,000 sales outlets in Germany. According to current discussions, only final distributors with a sales area of more than 400 square metres will be affected by similar obligations in Europe. This would affect many small businesses in Germany, but not in other EU countries.

Leder criticises: „A The blanket promotion of reusable packaging through mandatory supply is not expedient and is not based on scientific principles. This could displace deposit-based packaging such as drinks cans, which play an important role alongside reusable systems in the competition for ecologically optimised packaging systems. Almost all cans are returned to the shops by the public so that they can be reintroduced into the cycle.“

According to estimates by retailers, the new reusable supply obligation would massively increase logistics costs, because returnable systems require significantly more lorry journeys. Furthermore, additional expenses would have to be incurred for a reusable supply and its costly sorting and return - with massive consequences for prices on the beverage market.

„In order to increase consumers' freedom of choice at the shop counter, the freedom of choice of companies, often small businesses such as kiosks, is severely restricted. So that the consumer actually makes use of the reusable offer, The German draft law contains far-reaching interventions in pricing and the sales process. We consider competitiveness achieved in this way to be extremely questionable,“ continued Leder. 

Further interventions relate to packaging that accumulates in larger self-service restaurants, for example. Here, there is even to be a ban on 100% recyclable drinks cans or aluminium meal trays that are almost completely collected via dual systems or deposit systems. 

Background: The mandatory deposit was introduced in 2003 by the Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin (Alliance 90/The Greens) and was accepted by the population with great success. It has This has led to return rates of 99 per cent for beverage cans. Some aluminium packaging, such as drinks cans or meal trays, already contains a high proportion of recycled material and is usually reused for new packaging or other products after recycling without any loss of quality.

Source: Aluminium Germany