BERLIN, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Around 2,000 companies in Germany will face fines for not participating in the recycling system set out in the Packaging Act, the German central packaging register office (ZSVR) announced on Wednesday.
Obligated companies in Germany have to report data on how much packaging they placed on the market each year to the central register.
"Many manufacturers and retailers still do not seem to know that we are comparing and analyzing this data," said Gunda Rachut, head of the ZSVR.
The ZSVR had analyzed the "declarations of completeness" for large companies that were filed on May 15 and found a large number of "administrative offences" as well as "shortcomings in the application of guidelines," said Rachut.
These administrative offences had been handed over to the German federal states "so that enforcement can be initiated in these cases," noted the ZSVR.
The German Packaging Act, introduced on Jan. 1, 2019, created an obligation for companies bringing packaged products onto the market to ensure all packaging materials were collected and recycled.
"We want to move away from a throw-away society. The new Packaging Act will help us achieve more recycling and avoid excessive packaging," said German Minister for the Environment, Svenja Schulze.
The Packaging Act also established the central register authority and provided for increasing recycling quotas and incentives for manufacturers in Germany to design more environmentally-friendly and recyclable packaging.
"The mechanism regulated in the Packaging Act to control the obligations to dispose of packaging via the ZSVR is effective," noted the German central packaging register authority on Wednesday.
According to the ZVSR, some 170,000 companies in Germany were registered in the register this year.
