German Court Strikes Down New Recycling Regulation

Date: September 12, 2002

Source: News Room

Plans to spur Germans to higher recycling efforts suffered a blow recently when a court ruled against a new regulation putting a deposit on drink cans and many previously deposit-free bottles. The administrative court in Duesseldorf said the impact of the deposit for consumers and companies was too great to be settled by government mandate, and should have been put before the German parliament. Drink companies, who have filed complaints with courts across the country, hailed the verdict as signaling the beginning of the end for a regulation they say will be too expensive to implement. Germans already pay deposits for many glass and plastic bottles. But the government has missed recycling targets set out in earlier legislation as metal cans have become highly popular.

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