Consequences of the amendment to the Packaging Law for the concrete block industry

The law on bringing onto the market, taking back and the high-quality recycling of packaging (VerpackG) has been in effect in Germany since 01 January 2019. The Packaging Act replaces the Packaging Ordinance that first went into effect in 1991 and which regulates the responsibility of producers for disposal of their products. With the amendment, the VerpackG was adapted to European specifications and updated and improved relative to enforcement. The amendment went into force on 03 July 2021, although some regulations will not apply until 01 January or 01 July 2022 or later.

This lecture aims at presenting the German Packaging Act and the changes of significance for the concrete block industry following the amendment, as well as at providing a brief survey of the additional new regulations. New obligations are now in force for provision of information and for provision of evidence for producers and distributors, in particular for retail and grouped packaging in the industrial sector, for transport packaging and for reusable packaging. The registration requirements with the Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR) were also extended in the amendment and now apply to all producers and distributors of packaged goods. The new obligations, together with the dates of their coming into force, are presented and explained as to which actions for their fulfillment are possible or necessary. The most important terms and definitions within the scope of the Packaging Act are described, since correct categorization is decisive for obligations arising from the respective specifications to producer and distributors.

Finally, a number of additional new regulations were introduced, e.g., for operators of electronic marketplaces and for one-way plastics, which will be outlined briefly.