Quotes from the 3rd Grüner Punkt Forum:
To quote Dr. Thomas Rummler, Undersecretary in the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Reactor Safety: “Recent scientific studies confirm the ecological sense of the status quo for packaging recovery in Germany. Separate collection provides a foundation for the high quality of the secondary raw materials. Design enhancement targeting a recyclables bin in which other substances can also be collected for ecologically beneficial recovery will be examined by the Ministry in the near future.”
To quote Prof. Dr. h.c. Werner Delfmann, Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Packaging and Environment Working Group: “The dual systems must comply with shared rules. Enforcement is also vital. If all parties involved pull together, the 5th Amendment can become a success story for the entire sector.”
To quote Dr. Dirk Grünhoff, Section Head in the Ministry of the Environment, Forestry and Consumer Protection of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate: “Full-coverage substantive scrutiny of all completeness declarations by the enforcement agencies is not possible, nor does it appear appropriate. We check the completeness declarations filed by random sampling for plausibility, and if we find any inconsistencies we investigate them.”
To quote Dr. Armin Rockholz, Section Head for the Closed-Cycle Economy, CO2 Emissions Trading of the German Confederation of Chambers of Industry and Commerce: “The Chamber of Industry and Commerce organisation has ensured that the companies’ workload has been dramatically downsized. It’s only the large firms now that have to submit a completeness declaration with a certificate. Since the statutory deadline for completeness declarations, around 2,300 companies have already filed one; with more coming in every day. Within the framework of a sixth amendment, there should be further deregulation, not more stringent stipulations.”
To quote Peter Feller, Executive Director of the Confederation of the German Food Industry: “Since coming into force, the German Packaging Ordinance has made a substantial contribution towards resource-economy and climate protection. The private-sector structure of the dual systems has proved its worth. Besides effective enforcement, we now need a consensus among all parties involved about the definition of what is meant by the term ‘sales package’ and the procedure to be adopted for determining quantities.”
To quote Dr. Carl Dominik Klepper, Director of Environment/Sustainability/Logistics at the German Brand Association: “The 5th Amendment to the German Packaging Ordinance does not, of course, provide final clarification of all questions. It is, however, a good basis for maintaining the system of private-sector, close-to-home packaging disposal, and protecting it against progressive erosion. The business community and consumers have a shared interest in maximally efficient disposal solutions. Both want to avoid unnecessary costs. For this purpose, fair competition between the providers is essential.”
Cologne, 25 November 2009
