Dual system (waste management)

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The dual system describes the near-household collection and disposal of used sales packaging in Germany. It follows the requirements of the German Packaging Act .

Emergence

The background to this was the Packaging Ordinance , which came into force in 1991 , which for the first time obliged industry to take back packaging put into circulation after use and to recycle it. Until then, the municipalities were solely responsible for waste disposal.

The new legislation prompted companies in the food and packaging industry operating in Germany to set up an association that was able to bundle the fulfillment of recycling obligations. This resulted in joint disposal in the dual system. The service initially consisted of releasing the obligated companies from their individual take-back obligation by ensuring collective collection. According to the 2009 amendment to the Packaging Ordinance, manufacturers and distributors are obliged to include their packaging aimed at private end consumers in a dual system.

The first private provider of this service was Der Grüne Punkt - Duales System Deutschland GmbH . In 2003 a second system operator was approved for the first time in the state of Hesse with Landbell AG for return systems , which has been active nationwide since 2006. Other providers have now been approved:

  1. Recycling Kontor Dual GmbH & Co. KG
  2. BellandVision GmbH
  3. Interseroh service GmbH
  4. Noventiz Dual GmbH
  5. Reclay Holding GmbH
  6. Redual GmbH
  7. RKD Recycling Kontor Dual GmbH & Co. KG
  8. Veolia Umweltservice Dual GmbH
  9. VfW GmbH
  10. Zentek GmbH & Co. KG

Originally, packaging that took part in the dual system had to be labeled. Until the end of the monopoly position in 2003, Der Grüne Punkt was used exclusively for this purpose. This labeling requirement no longer exists since 2009, since all sales packaging aimed at private end consumers must participate in the dual system.

In practice

"Yellow sacks" are on a house wall ready for collection

The majority of the used sales packaging (approx. 7 million tons annually) is collected in the dual system and recycled (approx. 5.3 million tons annually). Consumers collect the packaging separately according to the type of waste: waste glass in public containers, waste paper mainly in waste paper bins, lightweight packaging made of plastics , metals and beverage cartons in private households in the yellow bin or the yellow sack . In some municipalities, especially in southern Germany, used sales packaging is also collected via recycling centers .

In the annual volume flow certificate (see Section 6 (7 ) of the Packaging Ordinance ), the dual systems document the fulfillment of their obligations to the competent state authority or an authority designated by it. It contains all data on the proper collection, sorting and recycling of the sales packaging collected and recycled in Germany.

In 2013, member of the Bundestag Bärbel Höhn made a parliamentary question about the effectiveness of the dual system. In its answer, the federal government gave the following estimated recycling rates for 2009: tinplate 92, aluminum 60, and plastics 43 percent. According to a response from the federal government to a request from the Greens, 44.1 percent of the entire contents of a yellow sack or bin was incinerated in waste incineration plants in 2014. According to a calculation by the Öko-Institut , 51.1 percent was used as substitute fuel in cement works, 40 percent as input into material recycling, 6 percent as input into waste incineration plants and 2.8 percent as input into raw material recycling in blast furnaces. However, according to calculations by Henning Wilts from the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, the actual recycling rate for plastic products should be just 5.6 percent (as of 2019).

Market environment

The following are recognized as dual systems according to the Packaging Act (VerpackG) (as of February 2020):

Coordination takes place via the joint agency for dual systems in Germany GmbH .

The Europäische Licensing Systems GmbH (ELS), which belonged to the financial holding ASCON with the main Swiss investor Jadeberg Partners AG (former name: Mountain Cleantech AG, main investors: IKEA GreenTech AB , Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH ), put its dual system into operation on June 1, 2018 a.

The market environment is in motion due to the announcement by the Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland). It is planning its own dual system, which will be active in all 16 federal states from 2020. PreZero Dual GmbH, based in Neckarsulm, was entered in the commercial register on September 19, 2018. The Cologne-based company Recycling Kontor Dual will no longer be active in the dual systems market from April 2019.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.gruener-punkt.de/fileadmin/layout/redaktion/Nachhaltigkeit/Studie-Oeko-Institut/16-09-21_OEko-Institut_Abschlussbericht_LCA-DSD.PDF Öko-Institut: Environmental potentials of the separate collection and recycling of Recyclables in the dual system, 2016, page 82
  2. ↑ Ecological effectiveness and economic efficiency of the dual systems in German waste management . German Bundestag , April 4, 2013
  3. ↑ Incinerated instead of recycled. In: THE TIME . October 18, 2016, Retrieved December 17, 1019 .
  4. ↑ Environmental potential of the separate collection and recycling of valuable materials in the dual system. (PDF) Öko-Institut, September 2016, p. 20 , accessed on December 17, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Waste quotas: German recycling system fails with plastic waste . In: Spiegel Online . January 18, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed April 4, 2019]).
  6. ↑ IHK - Dual Systems - VE Register. Retrieved February 13, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Common point - myALBA.de. Retrieved February 13, 2017 .
  8. ↑ [1]
  9. ↑ https://www.els-systeme.de/fileadmin/user_upload/ELS_de/Homepage_Insolvenz.pdf
  10. ↑ https://www.euwid-recycling.de/news/wirtschaft/einzelansicht/Artikel/lidl-konzern-plant-eigenes-duales-system.html
  11. ↑ https://www.northdata.de/PreZero+Dual+GmbH,+Neckarsulm/Amtsgericht+Stuttgart+HRB+757852
  12. ↑ https://www.welt.de/regionales/nrw/article189879533/Konbewerbkampf-in-der-Muellbranche-RKD-gibt-auf.html