Germany (and possible solutions...)

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/plastic-waste-and-the-recycling-myth/a-45746469

• Germans return deposit bottles to grocery stores and gather glass bottles at public collecting points 

• Germany = recycling role model

• Green dot system = companies pay a fee for the collection, sorting, and recovery of packaging waste 

• 2017: the World Economic Forum called Germany the recycling world champion 

• COLLECTING IS NOT RECYCLING

• It can be assumed that only 38 percent of Germany’s 3 million tons of annual plastic packaging waste was recycled according to circular economy expert Philipp Sommer from the DUH

• In larger cities, 50 percent of general trash ends up in the yellow bins set aside for plastic, which contaminates its value 

• Automated facilities do not have the technology to sort food containers made from different polymers/types of plastic, so a lot of mixed plastic ends up being discarded 

  • All the rejected waste is sent to landfills or is incinerated, but this is still labeled as being “recycled”

• Downcycling: recycled plastic cannot produce new packaging material — they can only be made to produce cheaper quality materials, such as coat hangers and flower pots, that will ultimately be thrown away anyway 

• In order to make new plastic packaging, the understudy must add new material (crude oil)

• Bottles composed of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) can be sanitized and refilled 25 times before being recycled — glass bottles can be used 50 times before being recycled 

• Germany has the biggest collection system for reusable PET and glass bottles 

• Circular economy: by producing less plastic waste, we would save the resources needed to dispose of it while simultaneously protecting the environment