Laws being tested: the packaging law

Germans like themselves as world champions in recycling – a self-image that is deceptive. Take plastic waste, for example: of the five million tonnes that private and commercial end users produce each year, more than half is “energetically recovered”, ie incinerated. Almost a third is passed on to other countries. In the end, only 16 to 17 percent can be reused as plastic. Not a good result, especially since the mountains of packaging are currently still growing: In the Corona era, the shipping boom and to-go gastronomy are adding a shovel.

To get the problem under control, the Packaging Act came into force in 2019. It obliges manufacturers, online retailers and other companies that put packaging into circulation, quantities and materials