News

Freeloading companies have brought Germany's Green Dot packaging recycling system to the brink of collapse, according to recycling firm Interseroh.

It told business magazine Handelsblatt that, as early as next year, "dustbins will be left standing in the street", unless the government changes the German Packaging Ordinance (GPO).

Only companies that pay a licence fee are legally allowed to display the Green Dot – or Der Grüne Punkt – symbol, which exempts them from the legal requirement to take back and recycle packaging.

However, firms that have illegally printed the label have so far gone unpunished.

Recycling company Duales System Deutschland, the former monopoly that owns the Green Dot licence, warned in May of the need take this into account because the ratio between the collection of packaging and revenue had become "seriously imbalanced".

The GPO, which came into force in 1991, gives responsibility for packaging to the whole supply chain – from material manufacturer through to the retailer.