What is the dual recycling system in Germany?

Germany's Duals System Deutschland (DSD), also known as "Green Point" company, is a non-profit social intermediary agency specializing in packaging waste recycling. 1995, supported by the German Federation of Industry (BDI) and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DmT), is composed of 95 product manufacturers, packaging manufacturers, commercial enterprises and garbage recycling departments. At present, 16000 enterprises have joined. It organizes these enterprises into a network, marks the packages that need to be recycled with green dots (Figure 6.3), and then DSD entrusts the recycling enterprises to handle them. As long as it is printed on the packaging of any commodity, it means that its production enterprises have participated in the "commodity packaging recycling plan" and paid for the waste packaging treatment of their products. The basic principle of the "Green Dot" plan is that whoever produces garbage pays. The "green dot" fee paid by enterprises is used by DSD to collect packaging garbage, and then it is cleaned, classified and recycled.

Figure 6.3 Green dot marking

1. Operation process

The operation process of DSD recovery system is as follows: packaging product manufacturers sell packaging to production enterprises for packaging or filling; The production enterprise pays the "green point" fee to the two-way system; The disposable packaging products of production enterprises can be printed with the "green dot" sign; It is handed over to the store for sale; Consumer consumption; Waste packaging after consumption is recycled by the garbage collection box invested by Green Point Company; The waste is collected by Green Point Company or the recycler who signed a contract with it, and then transported to the recycling plant; Produce recyclable raw materials.

Figure 6.4 Flowchart of Green Point Company's recycling system

2. Operation mode DSD system has two operation modes: one is roadside system mode, and the other is self-contained system mode. The former is the most basic mode.

The concrete way of street recycling system mode is to recycle light packaging materials, such as aluminum, iron sheet, plastic, cardboard boxes and soft drink packaging, with yellow bags or recycling boxes. Some public classified garbage bins are often placed in residential areas, and residents' glass bottles (green, colorless and brown), waste paper and cartons of different colors are recycled free of charge. Yellow bags are very common in Germany, because it is the easiest way to realize street recycling system, and both waste recycling companies and residents are happy to accept this recycling method. The specific way to turn over the recycling system model is that consumers must hand over all used packages directly to the local recycling station.

3. Effectiveness

The establishment of DSD system has significantly enhanced the public's awareness of environmental protection, greatly promoted the recycling of packaging waste in Germany, not only brought about efficient use of resources, but also produced positive ecological effects, and provided thousands of employment opportunities for the society. With the effective implementation of this complete garbage recycling system, the recycling rate of packaging materials in Germany has been continuously improved, from 1990 to 13.3% to 80% in 2002. The recycling capacity of product packaging has also been continuously enhanced, with the recycling rate of glass reaching 90%, paper packaging reaching 60% and light material packaging reaching 50%. At present, garbage disposal has become a new industry in German economy. According to official statistics, the German waste recycling industry will create a value of 4 1 billion euros every year, accounting for about 2% of GDP, and can create more than 200,000 jobs.