The Hindu Business Line : Germany's battle for a cleaner environment

Recycling is Germany's contribution to the global battle for the environment, and the country has been very successful in its fight against growing garbage heaps.

Unlike the situation in many countries, this public commitment is backed by government legislation. As early as 1991, a ruling called the Packaging Ordinance made it the duty of manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to `take back' different kinds of packaging, no matter how large or small.

Consumers reacted promptly, leaving mountains of plastic and paper trash and even empty bottles or cans behind them in the supermarkets. Overwhelmed by this sudden unwanted deluge, manufacturers and retailers got together to set up a central body that would handle packaging material collected throughout Germany.

They established the Duales System Deutschland (DSD) — a private enterprise that collects and sorts out glass, paper, cardboard, aluminium, tins, cartons and plastics.

Germany produces 30 million tonnes of garbage annually. The Green Dot system has been one of the most successful recycling initiatives, which has literally put packaging on a diet. The crux is that manufacturers and retailers have to pay for a "Green Dot" on products: the more packaging there is, the higher the fee.

This clever system has led to less paper, thinner glass and less metal being used, thus creating less garbage to be recycled. The net result: A decline of about one million tonnes less garbage every year.

Almost nine years ago, in October 1996, The Waste Avoidance, Recycling and Disposal Act came into effect with the aim of getting Germany `into a recycle economy. "Responsibility for a product must not end with its manufacturing,' the law says.

`It must contain environmentally friendly disposal, which mainly means re-use and recycle.' The law states that those who manufacture, trade in or consume goods are all responsible for the waste produced.

The Act also calls upon manufacturers to design their products in such a way as to reduce the amount of waste generated. And, it aims to monitor what happens to waste, so that huge quantities cannot just `go missing. Finally, the law includes an obligation to `take back' products and to recycle or dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way.

The car industry also appears to have been quick off the mark. There are roughly 50 million cars on the road in Germany of which about two million are scrapped annually. Car recovery, including overhauling and re-use of spare parts, has become a significant branch of the industry. About three-quarters of cars are currently recycled in some way, the remaining quarter are exported or, disposed off either by incineration or landfill. By 2015 cars should be 95- per-cent recoverable.

While the metal from old cars can be recycled, the plastic is often dumped in a landfill along with other hazardous material.

However, the new generation of cars is more `dismantle friendly'. Ford, for example, uses just five kinds of plastic nowadays compared with 25 previously. To aid dismantling, Volkswagen use different colours for different materials.

A major part of the success of the German recycling program is the proper sorting of domestic garbage. Let's start with the easy stuff: glass. Any kind of bottle or glass jar that is non-returnable and on which a deposit or "Pfand", is not paid belongs in the designated glass bins.

This includes wine bottles, jam/preserve jars, oil bottles, juice bottles and even bath-salt bottles. Ceramics, china, mirrors and wine corks do not belong in the glass bins. Glass is sorted by colour.

There are different slots for depositing green, brown and clear glass. These bins are found in all residential areas.

Paper: All packaging made of paper and cardboard, newspapers, magazines, waste paper, paper bags, etc. belong in the blue bins. Blue bins are also found in all areas of the German cities.

The Yellow Bins and the Green Dot: Cans, plastic, polystyrene, aluminium, tinplate and "composite" materials like beverage cartons made of a mixture of materials belong in the yellow bin. Empty spray cans are also allowed here. And lastly, spare a thought for the end process: this stuff gets sorted by hand. A kind request recycling companies make is to rinse the cans and cups before throwing them in the bin. And, Germans comply diligently!

The "other stuff" and biological waste, which by the way, makes up almost 50 per cent of the total garbage produced in Germany, goes into the brown bin and is recycled through natural fermenting gases or garden compost.

If you do not have a separate brown bin and don't feel like making your own compost heap, you are allowed to throw the bio stuff in your household waste bin, the grey one. Now we are left with "the rest", that is, the stuff that did not feature anywhere else. That is the hazardous waste, which includes fluorescent tubes, batteries and acids, cans of paint half-empty, thinners, adhesives, corrosives, disinfectants, insecticides, and so forth.

A notice is sent from the local town council on when and where the truck collecting this kind of waste, will be available. If this waste ends up in the grey bin, and you are caught, you are fined Euro 1,000, plus a warning is issued from the local town council. Batteries are disposed separately. There are small bins (it looks like a small garbage bin) in most shopping areas. If you are still left with something you would like to throw away and do not think that it could be sold at the "Trödelmarkt" (flea market), you have the opportunity, about twice a year, to place your stuff outside when Sonstige Müll (miscellaneous waste items) are gathered. This could include a sofa, broken hi-fi systems, , building materials, etc.

But not much of this stuff ends up in the garbage dump since many second hand dealers or "collectors" drive round the neighbourhood to inspect the thrown out stuff.

There is a lot of money made in Germany out of recycling and waste disposal. Indeed, it is considered one of Germany's most important growth markets, with an annual turnover that is expected to top $100 billion by 2006.

Domestic waste accounts for only 13 per cent of this; the lion's share comes from trade and industry. So, big money is being made by companies contracted by business to `take back' products or dispose of waste. Despite the extra effort and diligence required by First World Recycling, it does provide at least a sense of pride for an Indian like me, to figure out the German recycling system.

Alles klar? Now, where do you put a used tea bag?

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback may be sent to mohan.murti@t-online.de)

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