1. What is the general legislative framework regulating packaging and plastic waste in your jurisdiction?
Regulations for packaging waste are set out in the German Packaging Act (Verpackungsgesetz). It contains the following main obligations:
- General requirements for packaging including requirements on packaging volume and mass, reusability and recyclability and the use of secondary raw materials;
- Restrictions for lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium VI in packaging and packaging components;
- Requirements for the labelling of packaging materials; however, there is no obligation to label;
- Producers/first distributors of system-relevant packaging filled with goods are obliged to register with the packaging register LUCID of the Central Agency ZSVR (Stiftung Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister), to participate in a take-back system and to report different data;
- Producers and distributors of packaging filled with goods that are not system-relevant packaging are generally obliged to take back and properly dispose of certain types of packaging;
- Regulations on deposit and return obligations for disposable beverage packaging and obligations of last distributors to indicate whether the packaging is disposable or reusable;
- The Packaging Act obliges the dual systems to take ecological criteria into account when calculating the licence fees: the use of packaging that can be easily recycled, that contains recycled material or renewable raw materials leads to lower licence fees. Ecological behaviour is therefore rewarded.
- Failure to comply with the obligations prescribed by the German Packaging Act can lead not only to a prohibition of distribution but also to administrative fees of up to EUR 200,000.
Source Germany
