Germany’s first “Green Dot System”: whoever produces the packaging is responsible for recyclingIn Germany, the government has imposed a mandatory deposit on anyone who purchases mineral water, beer and soft drinks packaged in non-renewable materials since last year. Customers can only get their deposit back after finishing their drinks and returning the empty packaging to the store where they originally purchased it. This regulation makes this type of goods less and less marketable, forcing business owners who produce such goods to find ways to become members of the packaging recycling organization DSD as soon as possible.
In 1991, Germany promulgated the "Packaging Law", which for the first time used legal form to restrict the production and operation of commodity packaging. The core principles of the Regulation are:Whoever produces the packaging should recycle the packaging. The logo of the "Green Dot System" is a circular yellow-green pattern composed of green arrows and yellow arrows. The text above is composed of the German "DERGRUENEPUNKT", which means "Green Dot". The double-colored arrow with a green dot indicates that the product packaging is green, can be recycled, and meets the requirements of ecological balance and environmental protection. According to regulations, DSD enterprise members obtain the right to use the "Green Dot" packaging recycling mark after paying a certain usage fee to the DSD organization. The DSD organization uses the fees paid by members to collect packaging waste and clean, sort and recycle it. Enterprises that do not join the organization are required to recycle and process packaging materials on their own in accordance with the "Recycling Economy Law and Waste Law" promulgated in 1996.
In Germany, you have to pay to take out household garbage. However, since the packaging materials have been paid for by DSD corporate members, not only do you not have to pay, but professionals come to collect the packaging materials regularly. If consumers do not sort their packaging waste, the number of times they have to clean out their trash cans will increase, and consumers will have to pay more for garbage removal. This is an effective measure of the "Green Dot System" to encourage consumers to recycle packaging materials.
These packaging materials are recycled by the DSD organization and then transported to the specialized packaging processing station affiliated to the organization. Through special technology, packaging materials can be recycled and reused to the maximum extent. The remaining waste is incinerated to generate electricity or used as construction materials and paving materials. According to the German Federal Environmental Protection Agency, the recycling of packaging materials in Germany reached 6 million tons in 2003. The effective implementation of the "Green Dot System" has continuously improved the recycling rate of German packaging materials, which has increased from 13.6% in 1990 to 80% in 2002. The recycling capacity of product packaging has also been continuously strengthened. The recycling rate of glass has reached 90%, paper packaging is 60%, and light material packaging is 50%. Germany’s packaging recycling and reuse rate far exceeds that of other European and American countries.
Secondly, due to the usage fee of the green dot mark and the amount of packaging materials, the product price is directly related to the market competitiveness of the company. This forces manufacturers to find ways to simplify product packaging and make packaging materials easier to recycle and recycle from the source, without passing on the green dot mark usage fees to consumers. This is why the commodity economy is becoming more and more developed, but the growth rate of enterprise product packaging has slowed down.
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