One year of the Packaging Act - An interim assessment

• The Central Packaging Register Office ZSVR draws an overall positive interim conclusion on the effectiveness of the new packaging law.
• The system participation of almost all packaging materials was increased compared to previous years.
• However, cheaper production of new packaging and poor waste separation pose problems for the circular economy.

New quotas for reusable packaging and the recyclability of packaging products, plus stricter regulations on obligations for all those who bring filled packaging into circulation and a central body for licensing - the new Packaging Act has been intended to ensure more sustainable packaging disposal since January 2019. After more than a year since it came into force, it is time for an initial interim assessment.

SATISFACTION IN THE CENTRAL OFFICE PACKAGING REGISTER

Precise findings on the operation and effectiveness of the Central Packaging Register (ZSVR) are not expected until the end of 2022, but according to its own information, the licensing body is quite satisfied with developments to date.

More system participation in packaging recycling

One of the reasons for the positive mood: since 2016, the number of companies registered in the LUCID packaging register has roughly tripled. This means that around 179,000 manufacturers (as of March 2020, source: ZSVR) have complied with the registration obligation.

The ZSVR was also pleased with the significant increase in system participation for paper, cardboard and carton (as a related group of materials) and for glass. Lightweight packaging, on the other hand, is still below the expected participation rates. This is unfavorable in that the participation volumes for lightweight packaging have been increasing for years.

Also still problematic is the question of how far-reaching the scope of product responsibility is in practice. The new legislation requires manufacturers to become more active in this respect. However, there is still a lack of clarity among them in many cases as to how they should implement these new obligations.
 

A catalog for more clarity

Legal clarity is to be ensured by means of an administrative regulation and an associated catalog listing packaging that is subject to system participation:

• All manufacturers can thus easily determine their respective obligations.

• Independent assessments of how far one's own product responsibility extends will be ruled out in the future. In addition, sanctions are possible if the requirements of the administrative regulation are not observed.

• Companies that fulfill their responsibilities in accordance with the law should be better protected by these measures.

In addition, the ZSVR now regularly publishes case reports on companies that fail to comply with their product responsibility. The measure is intended to provide more transparency so that other manufacturers can recognize and change their own misconduct more quickly.

IT CAN STILL BE BETTER: WHERE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PACKAGING LAW HAS NOT YET TAKEN EFFECT

The contents of the Packaging Act are by no means new, they merely extend the previously applicable regulations of the Packaging Ordinance and define various aspects more clearly than before. This is one of the reasons why the ZSVR's verdict is less optimistic in some areas.

Product responsibility - what is it?

The Packaging Ordinance, which was replaced by the Packaging Act at the beginning of 2019, had essentially the same objectives as the new legal regulations:

• Reduced amount of packaging waste

• more individual responsibility of the manufacturers for disposal

Gegolten hat die Verpackungsverordnung seit 1991, eine Neufassung trat 1998 in Kraft.

Product responsibility has therefore been in place for a long time, but the ZSVR nevertheless received around 60,000 inquiries from companies about future responsibilities in the run-up to its entry into force. In view of the existing legal situation, the authority had apparently not expected inquiries on such a scale.

On the other hand, there are also positive signals: The minimum standards for the recyclability of packaging, which are supported by industry and trade, go beyond the original legal requirements, for example, according to the ZSVR. In order to be able to meet the required high recycling rates, this is an important step.
 

The impact on dual systems

Incidentally, a precise evaluation of the effectiveness of the new packaging law and the work of the ZSVR will not be available until the end of 2022. This is to prevent possible distortions and delays due to procedural durations, notification and reporting periods.
 

However, the initial developments recorded in the first quarter of 2019 still left room for improvement:

• The licensed volume of lightweight packaging increased by around 5 percent compared with the previous quarter.

• An increase of 5.5 percent was recorded for glass.

• The most significant increase was in paper, board and cardboard, which was around 11 percent.

However, the ZSVR is generally confident about the development of participation volumes and the associated forecasts for the end of 2019. Increases of 2.3 percent (glass) and 12.6 percent (paper, cardboard and cartonboard) compared to the same period of the previous year mean that the target figures (2.25 and 1.9 million tons respectively) for 2019 will even be exceeded.

Even lightweight packaging recorded another increase of 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter. However, at the time of the survey (as of October 2019), this was still not enough to reach the target of 1.85 million tons.

In principle, however, this is a positive development, which is also reflected in higher recycling rates. Of the licensed plastic packaging, around 90 percent was recycled in Germany in 2019, and 7 percent in Austria and the Netherlands. Only a share of 0.05 percent went to a non-EU country for recycling, namely Switzerland.
 

Circular economy is becoming increasingly important - but also more difficult

However, compliance with participation volumes and recycling quotas depends on very different factors. One of these is how private consumers deal with packaging waste. According to the ZSVR and the Federal Environment Agency, light packaging in particular still ends up in residual waste too often or is insufficiently separated.
 

In both cases, valuable materials are lost for high-quality recycling. The ZVSR therefore has an advisory board that is looking into possible improvements and recommendations for waste separation. This would possibly also create the necessary incentives for manufacturers to rely more on recyclates in production.

At present, recyclable plastics in particular are not very attractive as a raw material for new packaging. The reason for this is the low oil price, which makes the production of new plastic packaging cheaper than recycling. What is tempting for manufacturers often means financial cuts for recyclers.
 

What's more, the ambitious recycling quotas can hardly be achieved if the circular economy is circumvented in this way. Against the background of the positive developments to date, this trend is a step backwards. If necessary, the legislator will then have to intervene, as was already the case in February 2020 with the draft bill for an amendment to the Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act.