The letters of the law
The legal foundation for the operations of Duales System Deutschland GmbH is the German Packaging Ordinance which came into force on 12 June 1991 and was amended for the third time on 24 May 2005. It introduces the principle of producer responsibility for used packaging and places a legal obligation on trade and industry to take back and recycle transport, secondary and sales packaging in line with this principle.
The Packaging Ordinance essentially paved the way for the German Recycling and Waste Management Act, leading on to the Battery Ordinance and the Ordinance on End-of-Life Vehicles and the Electrical and Electronic Appliance Act, and for the European Packaging Directive.
All environmental laws and ordinances can be found at the BMU website. Certain parts of the environmental legislation have been in existence for centuries, others are of more recent origin. New environmental legislation is being added continuously with the passing of EU directives or the conclusion of international law agreements. The BMU website (German language only) gives a good overview of legal texts that are valid at present.
