PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2021

imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Vangerowstraße 33 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 info@hbmedia.net EDITORIAL Kay Barton Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Waldemar Schmitke Anthony Withers WikiPETia.info petplanet@hbmedia.net MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann hirschmann@hbmedia.net Johann Lange-Brock lange-brock@hbmedia.net phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur | exprim.de Matthias Gaumann READER SERVICES Till Kretner reader@hbmedia.net PRINT Chroma Druck Eine Unternehmung der Limberg-Druck GmbH Danziger Platz 6 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | w ww.petpla.net PETplanet Insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to quali fi ed subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ sub- scription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identi fi ed as trademarks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 01+02/21 www.petpla.net Are one-way refundable deposits a German thing? As a global leader in collection, Germany is extending the scope of its bottle deposit system. According to PET Forum, 94% of all PET drinks containers, with or without a refundable deposit, are already being recycled in Germany of which 37% is bottle-to-bottle with the remainder going into fi bre or other elements. The refundable deposit is 25 cents per bottle. Assuming a bottle weighs on average 25 g, the value of post-consumer 1 kg PET bottles is around 10EUR. Quite a remarkable difference to the price around 1EUR/kg of virgin PET. Supposedly environmentally-friendly carton drinks containers are not eligible for a single-use refundable deposit. At the start of the year, the Environmental Action Germany (EAG - DUH) organisation determined that the 76% recycling rate claimed by the manufacturers was purely window-dressing. This fi gure includes moisture, dirt, aluminium, plastics and paper, some of which is incinerated. If all these elements are excluded, you are left with a recycling rate of just under 30%. So, although a PET container has a demonstrably better collection and material recycling rate, a drinks carton does not qualify for a redeemable deposit according to a new regulation on the deposit on non-re fi llable containers in Germany. Hard to understand but that’s politics I guess. One interesting aspect of the EAG study is that up to 50% of a drinks carton’s weight is made up of plastic which makes me wonder what would happen if we wrapped thick paper labels around PET bottles. We would then have a material mix of 50% paper and 50% plastic. Would this make the container deposit free? Also of note in this context is the work of Paboco (Paper Bottle Company) which, as a joint venture of BillerudKorsnäs and Alpla, is developing a paper container using recycled fi bres. The barrier layer is still made from plastic. Despite being in the experimental stage, Coca- Cola Europe is already going public with the bottle (see page 54). Other brands include Carlsberg, the Absolut Company and L’Oréal. It will be intriguing to see how the paper container will ultimately be launched on the market and whether it will be deposit or deposit-free in Germany only. Yours sincerely, Alexander Büchler Dear readers,