Europe — Packaging

Due to the scarcity of landfill space, EPR policies have been widely used to change the design of products and reduce government costs for product disposal. Back in 1991 Germany launched the movement towards EPR policies by enacting the Ordinance of Packaging Waste. Similar ordinances were adopted in Austria, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, and Portugal. The ordinance mandated that manufacturers and distributors take back their packaging materials and meet certain recycling and recovery rates. As of January of 1999, the following quantities of materials had to be recycled: glass, 75%; tinplate, 70%; aluminum, 60%; paper, cardboard, 60%; composites, 60%. During the same time period, 60% of plastics had to be recovered.

German manufacturers created a third-party nonprofit called the Duales System Deutschland (DSD) — a consortium of 600 companies—to handle collection and recycling services. More than 75% of the packaging in Germany carries the green dot label, which means it is part of the DSD. Consumers pay an increased price for packaging based on the costs of disposal. This gives manufacturers some incentive to increase the use of recyclable, nontoxic packaging to make their products more cost competitive. Although the system has achieved a 13% reduction in consumption of packaging (while during the same time, the U.S. increased its use of packaging by 15%), large amounts of recycling waste are still being exported or incinerated for energy recovery. The original ordinance contained no material restrictions, which allowed the continued use of PVC and other hazardous materials. The ordinance was revised to stipulate that lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium had to be reduced from 600 parts per million (ppm) in 1998 to 100 ppm in 2001.

For more information visit the Green Dot website.