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Plastic manufacturers in Germany will soon be forced to pay towards litter collecting.
FREMONT, CA: German plastic producers will soon be required to contribute to litter cleanup. The Cabinet approved a law that will compel producers of single-use plastic products to contribute to a government-managed central fund. The law will go into effect in 2025. Based on the companies' prior output of single-use plastic, the fund will likely receive Euro 450 million in its first year. This will increase the price of cleaning litter in parks and city streets.
Single-use plastics (SUPs) are made to be used once, for a brief time, and then discarded. They include plastic bottles, food wrappers, carrying bags, coffee cups, and take-out containers.
Due to their brief usage, SUPs are more prone to become litter, and many of them wind up in the ocean, where they break down into microplastics that are then devoured by fish and eventually people. According to Germany's Environment Minister, Steffi Lemke, everyone currently pays for cleanups in the largest economy in Europe. Everyone whose firm depends on selling single-use plastic items should foot the bill for waste collection and cleanup.
Only about 30 per cent of the 60 million metric tonnes of plastic produced in Europe each year is ultimately recycled. The recycling rate of plastic packaging varies by nation, with Germany setting the bar at 99.6 per cent in 2019.
A more sustainable approach to using plastics is suggested by the European Green Deal. This includes the Single-Use Plastics Directive for the entire EU, which came into effect in 2019 and gave member states two years to implement the strategy. For non-compliant nations, infringement procedures started in early 2022.
The rule aims to reduce the use of SUP items like cotton bud sticks, cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, balloons and sticks for balloons, food containers, beverage containers, cigarette butts, plastic bags, packets, and wrappers, wet wipes, and sanitary items that are most frequently found on beaches. When reasonable and easily accessible sustainable alternatives are available, nations must refrain from releasing these products onto the market.
Additionally, they must promote reusable alternatives and lessen the use of disposable plastic food containers, collect 90 per cent of single-use plastic drink bottles by 2029, ensure that bottles contain a minimum amount of recycled plastic, and implement labelling to warn users about the dangers of leaving plastic items in the environment.
