Ten states of the European Union (EU) have already created or are in the process of creating consumer-level collecting systems for packaging waste, in order to implement the European packaging directive. This emerged from the recent study on "Packaging Circulation in Europe" by the INTEC-Beratungsinstitut für Technologiepolitik GmbH (Meckenheimer Allee 162, D-53115 Bonn), which was commissioned by Duales System Deutschland GmbH (DSD, Frankfurter Str. 720-726, D-51145 Köln). The green dot, which indicates that the packaging is included in a collecting system, is the most widely dispersed trademark in Europe and possibly throughout the world, with an estimated 420bn units sold per year, said Intec manager Wolfgang Schutt.

The EU packaging directive committed the member states to submitting legal and administrative regulations on the avoidance, reduction and recycling of packaging by 30 June 1996. Germany, Austria, France, Portugal and Sweden had passed regulations by this date, while Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Great Britain had drawn up drafts. Appropriate regulations are expected to be in force within two years in nearly all EU states, said Schutt. This means that the collection and recycling of packaging will probably become one of the most important submarkets for the disposal management industry, since a volume of about 50m t per year is expected in the EU. The implementation of the European packaging directive would give European recycling companies a considerable competitive lead on the international market.

Although there are national differences in the implementation of the guideline, a basic pattern has emerged: the manufacturers and distributors of packaging are obliged to take back and recycle used packaging, but can be released from this obligation by joining an extensive collecting system. However, this process has not yet been harmonised to the extent intended in the EU directive. For example, the only country so far in which the costs for the collection and recycling of packaging are borne in full by the industry via the collecting systems is Germany, said Intec.

In the other EU states, it is the local authorities who have to bear some or all of the costs. Schutt criticised that the introduction of cost-advantageous and ecologically progressive high-tech procedures for sorting and recycling packaging is hampered in Germany by an unfavourable political climate. So despite its early start in circulatory management, Germany risks losing its role as pioneer in the field of packaging recycling, although together with Austria it leads the way as far as integrating the households into the collecting system is concerned.

Most of the European states which work with nationwide collecting systems have also passed stricter legal provisions than Germany against "free riders". According to the manager of DSD, Wolfram Brück, the volume of packaging licensed by the DSD amounts to 72% of the total packaging volume. Brück called for this share to be increased by amending the ordinance on packaging in order to reduce distortions of competition.

READER SERVICE: Intec study "Packaging Circulation in Europe – the Implementation of the Directive 94/62/EG of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging refuse", August 1996, 60 pages, A4 (German): PIE-No. 39691.