The Hessian Environment Minister of the German party “die Grünen”, Ms. Hinz wants a mandatory deposit to be introduced for all beverages in order to produce less plastic waste. This proposal was submitted to the Bundesrat a few days ago and has been the subject of many discussions ever since.

Reasons for the extension of the mandatory deposit

According to the Hessian Bundestag, the mandatory deposit will be extended to all beverage cans and disposable bottles. This expansion is intended to reduce packaging and disposable waste. In summary, it can be said that all non-carbonated and almost all canned beverages will be affected. If Priska Hinz has its way, the mandatory deposit will be extended as soon as possible. Since, in her opinion, the ever-increasing amount of plastic waste caused by it is one of the biggest environmental problems of our time.

The FDP, however, has a different opinion and believes that the deposit law should not be extended, but wants to completely abolish the one-way deposit and instead revise and improve recycling strategies.

If you look around in the shops, you will quickly notice that drinks such as juices or milk drinks have so far had no deposit, and in addition you will find more and more disposable bottles on the shelves. This is also made very clear by a few statistics from the last few years, which have dealt with beverage packaging.

Only a few companies consider it important that their drinks are not sold in disposable bottles but in reusable bottles. A good example of this is the new drink Kollago, for the managing director it is very important that the drink is sold in returnable glass bottles.

Elimination of the competitive disadvantage

Not only does the mandatory deposit bring advantages for the environment, but it also eliminates the competitive disadvantage between deposit-free and deposit-paid beverages. This is because in some cases the recipe of soft drinks without a deposit is adapted in such a way that they are comparable to the respective deposit drink and they are sold more because they cost less.

References:

www.hogapage.de/nachrichten/beverage/alkoholfreie-getraenke-beverage/hessen-fordert-verschaerfte-pfandpflicht-fuer-getraenke/

www.hessenschau.de/politik/landesregierung-will-pfand-auf-alle-dosen-und-flaschen,hessen-flaschenpfand-100.html