New method for assessing the recycability of packaging

Art. 21 of the Packaging Act addresses the issue of assessing the recyclability of packaging to the players involved in the life of a packaging. Due to the ecological arrangement of the licence charges, in future recyclable packaging will have lower recycling participation charges and non-recyclable packaging will have higher participation charges.

“Based on our assessment method, the weakpoints of packaging and improvement potential can be clearly identified”, explained Dr Siegfried Kreibe, Deputy Managing Director of bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH. “This is because the better recycling function, the higher the qualities that can be achieved and thus the higher the sales opportunities for the recycled raw materials produced.”

“The recyclability course is set during the design of packaging”, said Markus Müller-Drexel, Managing Director of INTERSEROH Dienstleistungs GmbH. “Within the scope of our packaging optimisation service, we now enable manufacturers and traders to specifically optimise their sales packaging with the help of a scientifically based, reliable assessment pattern. This is also important in view of the Packaging Act that will apply from 2019.”

The methodology developed by bifa and Interseroh assesses the central aspects that determine the recyclability of packaging:

• Can the consumer easily assign the packaging to the correct collection system?
• Can the packaging from the mixed collection in the yellow (plastics) bin be purposefully sorted?
• How well suited is the packaging to material recovery with regard to quality and quantity?