Product responsibility for packaging has existed in Germany since 1993. Many manufacturers have not implemented this obligation or have done so inadequately. A major issue here was that many manufacturers or retailers tended to underestimate the scope of their obligations.
As a result, product responsibility did not apply to a significant proportion of packaging. At the end of 2018, the Central Agency Packaging Register specified the obligations for the first time in a catalogue of packaging subject to system participation. This catalogue has now been slightly expanded in the 2019 edition and revised in some respects. The consultation process for the stakeholders begins today; it ends on 18 August 2019.
Since 1 January 2019 every manufacturer can apply to the Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR) to determine whether a specific packaging is obliged to participate in a system. This obligation always exists if this packaging typically accumulates as waste with a private final consumer. The Central Agency Packaging Register must treat all packaging equally. It is inconceivable that the same packaging from one manufacturer typically accumulates with the private final consumer and not with another. In order to organise the work of the authorities efficiently and to spare manufacturers the bureaucratic application process, the Central Agency Packaging Register has determined where the vast majority of packaging typically accumulates as waste.
This means that obligated parties can now quickly find out whether their packaging is obligated by looking at the catalogue. „The legally compliant, clearly comprehensible option of determining the system participation obligation of packaging by the companies themselves has been welcomed by many companies,“ says Gunda Rachut.
The aim of the catalogue is to make the past practice of „Defining out“ packaging from the scope of application of the Packaging Act and to make a clear allocation of obligations. The times of sub-participation with a distortion of competition worth at least 200 million euros per year should be a thing of the past.
„Based on the first 2018 edition, we have now made sensible revisions to individual product groups and added further relevant products to these in order to include niche products in the catalogue,“ explains Gunda Rachut, Chairman of the Stiftung Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (Central Agency Packaging Register Foundation), summarised the contents of the new edition.
This means that there is finally the same basis for everyone, ending the distortions of competition. „The catalogue eliminates the injustices in the market that arose during the time of the Packaging Ordinance. In future, it will no longer be possible to exclude packaging from the system participation obligation.“
The catalogue is also available on the ZSVR website as a database with full-text search. In addition, the ZSVR continues to offer all product groups and the entire catalogue in file form. The current catalogue version still consists of 36 product groups with now 442 products. In the interests of clarity, the new products and their packaging have been categorised in the existing product groups. The catalogue structure has therefore remained the same.
In addition, a guide to using the catalogue has been available since the end of 2018. It explains the basic principles and provides specific information on how to use and read the catalogue. „In the interests of equal treatment, the Packaging Act does not allow for any individual company or sector-specific categorisation of packaging,“ says Gunda Rachut. „Anything else would not be an acceptable situation for the companies concerned either.“.
The consultation process began on 15 July 2019. The affected parties have until 18 August 2019 to submit their comments. The Central Agency Packaging Register will then review the comments received after the final revision and publish the catalogue on the system participation requirement in the 2019 edition.
