German government takes action against “pointless plastic packaging”
News from committees and current parliamentary initiatives.
Single-use plastic is to become expensive and the recycling quota is to be doubled
Petitions/committee. Source: hib – heute im bundestag no. 841
Berlin: (hib/HAU) The federal government supports efforts at European level to ban „pointless plastic packaging“. That was said by the parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry, Florian Pronold (SPD), during a public session of the petitions committee. At the same time he pointed to changes in the Packaging Act coming into force at the beginning of next year that aim to double the plastic recycling quota.
At the start of the session the petitioner Leon Kuhn had presented his submission, which pursues the goal of a significant reduction in plastic waste. It is about averting irreversible damage to nature, he said, calling for political action. In the petitioner’s view what is needed is „a significant increase in the fees for non-biodegradable food packaging that packaging manufacturers have to pay for disposal and recovery under the Packaging Act“. The increase in fees should be understood as an incentive for avoidance, his submission states. „The fees should be raised gradually over several years so that packaging manufacturers and food distributors have enough time to convert their systems and business models.“
The fee for unnecessary plastic should be so high that using it no longer pays
Once the introduction is complete, however, he believes the fees should be high enough to make the use of unnecessary packaging unprofitable and to reduce the use of plastics substantially overall. In any case the fees charged by the system operators would always have to be high enough „to result in a significant increase in the retail prices of food packaged in plastic“. Selling unpackaged goods, Kuhn said during the session, has to pay off and displace the sale of packaged ones.
Bans and fees are the only solution in his view, the petitioner told the members of parliament. People are certainly aware „that we have a huge waste and plastic problem“, but they buy what is on offer – and the clear majority of that is packaged products.
Environment state secretary Pronold emphasised that with the new Packaging Act the federal government wants to „introduce an ecological steering effect“. In future the dual systems are to differentiate „how sensible a packaging is“. According to the plans, the fees payable by producers are to be based on that as well. „It will not reach the level called for in the petition, but if in doubt further adjustments will have to be made,“ Pronold said.
Environment state secretary Pronold criticises bioplastics
The SPD politician also stressed that the main goal has to be waste avoidance. It is therefore right to tackle pointless single-use plastic packaging. He was sceptical about biodegradable packaging: consumers get the impression that such materials can simply be thrown away. That is not the case – they need special biological treatment instead.
Petitioner Kuhn said the point is not to replace non-biodegradable packaging with biodegradable packaging. „The solution is: doing without the packaging instead of changing the packaging,“ he said.
flustix welcomes this development and continues to be available to manufacturers with advice and support in identifying, testing and labelling plastic-free products.