Around 2,000 violations of the new Packaging Act

Since the beginning of 2019, the Central Office for Packaging Registers (ZSVR) has received and checked data on the packaging quantities of the manufacturers and the waste disposal quantities of the systems. To date, around 2,000 administrative offences have been detected.

Every three months, the ZSVR receives all the data from the systems (waste disposal companies) and additional data from the actors who bring packaging onto the market. On 15 May, the big companies from the latter group also had to submit the “declarations of completeness” for the year 2018, in which the annual packaging quantities are certified by inspectors. “Many manufacturers and retailers still don’t seem to realize that we compare and analyze these data,” says Gunda Rachut, member of the Board at the Central Packaging Register Office.

In about 2,000 cases, these analyses revealed administrative offences which the ZSVR handed over to the enforcement authorities together with the evidence in accordance with § 26 of the Packaging Act. This can lead to fines. However, the ZSVR did not only register improper conduct on the part of the obligated parties. The work of the examiners too was criticized for deficits in implementing the test guidelines.

The examination and analysis of the reported data are, however, by no means completed with the transfer of the cases mentioned above to the authorities. It was reported that analyses for a large number of other cases are still ongoing, or that investigations are continuing in writing. “Both in our enquiry portal and in our evaluation of the figures and reports available to us, we have found that ignorance of the duties involved is high. We are astonished to see that compliance in the field of the Packaging Act is at a relatively low level,” says Gunda Rachut.