Environment Ministry tightens deposit rules for supermarkets

2023-06-27 17:53:36

Shopping in a supermarket

Superfluous packaging should be avoided in the future.

(Photo: IMAGO/Martin Wagner)

Berlin Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) is aiming for a tightening of the packaging law. Large retailers are thus subject to new obligations when offering and taking back returnable bottles. A corresponding draft law has been going through the internal government departmental vote since this Tuesday.

The plans aim to “avoid superfluous packaging and promote ecologically advantageous reusable packaging”, according to a key issue paper by the ministry on the law. “We are thus implementing an important goal of the coalition agreement and are driving forward the consistent avoidance of waste.”

This is based on the realization that the consumption of packaging in Germany is at a high level. According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the total amount of packaging waste which is mainly collected separately from the residual waste in the yellow bin, glass or paper containers, at 6.5 million tons in 2020.

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