Systematic implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle.
Legal regulations clearly pass on the responsibility of recycling packaging to manufacturers and distributors of such materials.
The Kreislaufwirtschafts- und Abfallgesetz (KrW-/AbfG / Act for Promoting Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management and Ensuring Environmentally Compatible Waste Disposal) is the most important law in Germany governing waste management. It came into force in 1996 replacing its predecessor, the "Gesetz zur Vermeidung und Entsorgung von Abfällen" (Act on Handling and Disposing Of Waste). The KrW-/AbfG regulates how waste is handled and disposed of.
The Packaging Ordinance (VerpackV) deals with the regulations in the KrW-/AbfG* concerning the recycling of packaging in more detailed and more concrete terms. The regulations laid down in the Packaging Ordinance influenced both the German KrW-/AbfG and the European Packaging Directive and demonstrate how the Polluter Pays Principle can be systematically implemented.
The European Packaging Directive of 1994 lays down the overriding framework conditions which must be transposed into national law by all the member states of the European Union. The other directives that go beyond this and that have been passed by the EU Commission are also binding for all EU states.
* Act for Promoting Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management and Ensuring Environmentally Compatible Waste Disposal