Do you know how much packaging waste you take care of every year, as an average citizen in Germany? In 2019, it was 277.55 kilograms per capita, or 18.91 million tons for the entire population.

Compared with 2010, this represents an increase of a whopping 18.1 percent. This puts us in Germany around 50 kilograms above the European average of 177.38 kilograms. The figures come from the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA).

According to the German Environmental Aid (DUH), the enormous growth within a decade is due to a significant increase in "disposable to-go" products, shrinking packaging sizes and the steady growth of online retailing.

To counteract this, the reusable system must be further expanded and the recyclability of packaging improved. Reason enough, then, to take a look at the history and development of recycling.

Historical beginnings of recycling

Man has always been inventive. So it is hardly surprising that the recycling of certain materials was already practiced in ancient times, because some raw materials were either too scarce or too valuable to simply dispose of somewhere.

Antique: metal and glass recycling

Archaeological excavations have shown that in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, glass and metal were collected and recycled by melting them down. Thus, there were professional scrap metal collectors who searched the cities for metal products that were no longer used.

When Christianity prevailed in the Roman Empire, thousands of "pagan" statues made of bronze were destroyed by the Christians, then melted down and made into new products. After the fall of Rome, countless grave robbers were out to steal metal from the haunted tombs.

This took on such proportions that normal mining of ores declined significantly during this period. The famous "Colossus of Rhodes," which stood above the harbor entrance on the Greek island of the same name and was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was also made of bronze. The statue, 30 to 40 meters high, toppled during an earthquake and was destroyed. It is known that in 672, Jewish metal traders bought parts of the colossus from the Arab conquerors of the island in order to recycle them.

In the waste pits of the Middle Ages, only few remains of glass and metal are found, although both materials were not rare at that time. Archaeologists also interpret this fact to mean that objects made of these materials that had become unusable were collected, melted down and made into new products.

Middle Ages: paper from rags

From the 12th century, the paper industry began to establish itself in Europe, initially in Italy and France. In 1390, the first German paper mill was founded in Nuremberg. The most important raw materials at this time and into the 19th century were not wood or pulp, but rags or rags.

In the Middle Ages, it was the job of rag pickers to roam the towns and buy textiles that were no longer used from the citizens and deliver them to the paper mills. Remains of spinning mills, weaving mills, tailors and rope workshops also became part of paper production.

The ragpickers usually came from marginalized social groups and were not particularly respected. In addition, they were notorious for their aggressive bargaining. The resulting swearword "Haderlump" is still known today.

Interesting in this context: With the invention and triumph of printing, the demand for rags became so great that in some areas the export or smuggling of discarded textiles was severely punished.

Early modern era: paper from waste paper

The German lawyer Justus Claproth (1728-1805) from Göttingen is considered the inventor of paper recycling. Together with the paper manufacturer Johann Engelhard Schmid (1736-1811), he succeeded in removing printing ink from waste paper using turpentine oil and washing earth.

He published the results in his paper "An Invention to Make New Paper in Turn from Printed Paper." This marked the beginning of the deinking process (removal of printing ink from printed waste paper) was invented. However, the process did not become established on an industrial scale until the 1950s.

Today, the German paper industry uses around 80 percent recovered paper for its production. This has been made possible by the continuous technical development of deinking and the separation of different grades of recovered paper.

 

Age of industrialization: The mountains of waste are growing

Industrialization began in Europe in the first decades of the 19th century. The transition from predominantly agricultural and artisanal to mechanized production and the parallel population growth led to the increasing manufacture of products that generated waste at the end of their service life.

During this period, in addition to the growing quantity, a new quality of waste emerged in terms of packaging and repackaging. Many goods were packaged at the manufacturers to prepare them for transport and better protect them.

Machine production made a lot of things cheaper, so that a kind of throwaway mentality soon spread that continues to this day. The aforementioned figure of 277.55 kilograms of packaging waste per capita in Germany alone underscores this fact.

Although there are numerous methods for recycling waste, waste continues to be thrown away carelessly. You only have to think of the pollution of the oceans with millions of tons of plastic to know what tasks have to be accomplished now and in the future.

How has the reusable system developed?

When we talk about reusable packaging today, we are talking to a not insignificant extent about beverage packaging or bottles. In this area, too, the history goes back a long way.

Greeks and the Romans used belly-shaped clay vessels, the well-known amphorae, for transporting and storing liquids such as wine, olive oil, fish sauces and solid foods such as grain and fruit. These were not thrown away after emptying, but cleaned and reused.

The oldest known deposit system for returnable bottles was introduced in Sweden in 1885 for 33 cl glass bottles. Many countries followed suit over time and introduced a deposit on returnable glass and plastic bottles.

Example of a reusable system: mineral water bottles in Germany

In Germany, there are numerous wells from which mineral water is extracted, bottled and sold. Until the beginning of World War II, however, each well distributed its product in its own bottle, which made returns a problem. There were isolated cooperative ventures at the regional level, but overall the process proved to be very inflexible and costly.

A cooperative of twelve mineral springs founded back in 1937 decided to reorganize in 1949 and renamed itself Genossenschaft Deutscher Brunnen eGmbH (GDB). At that time, there were around 60 different bottle shapes and 200 crate types.

Therefore, starting in 1952, GDB began developing a standard bottle to simplify the return of empties. It held 0.7 liters and had a lever cap.

In the 1960s, the so-called pearl bottle with screw cap and the corresponding crate were created, both of which are still used for mineral water today.

It is difficult to say to what extent the bottle has contributed to the increase in consumption in Germany. But the fact is that it has risen from 12 liters per capita in 1969 to more than 140 liters per person per year in the meantime.

With the advent of plastic bottles, GDB had to rethink. At the end of the 1990s, the pearl bottle came onto the market in the same design as a returnable PET bottle with capacities of 0.5 and 0.75 as well as 1.0 liters, including matching crates. Many millions of the pearl bottles are in circulation. This shows how successful a returnable system can be.

Advantages and relevance of reusable use

Returnable bottles have some advantages over disposable bottles.

1. They enable climate protection, as they cause only about half as much CO2 emissions over their life cycle as disposable plastic bottles.

2. They conserve resources. In Germany alone, around two million disposable bottles are emptied every hour. That's a staggering 17.4 billion bottles per year, the production of which requires around 440,000 tons of crude oil and natural gas.

3. They avoid waste. Single-use plastic bottles cause 450,000 tons of waste per year, which could be saved by reusable systems.

4. They ensure shorter transport routes, as they are filled and distributed regionally by 1,800 beverage producers. For the large quantities of low-priced beverages in plastic cups, there are only 200 bottling plants that deliver nationwide and therefore have further transport routes.

Even though disposable bottles can be recycled, they are not as environmentally friendly as reusable bottles because recycling consumes additional energy.

Recycling in Germany 

In 2019, the recycling rate for plastics in Germany was 55.2 percent, while the European average is only around one-third. In the previous year, the figure was 47.9 percent. The rates are particularly high for

• Electrical appliances: 100 percent

• Paper and cardboard: 99 percent

• Biowaste: 97 percent

• Household waste: 70 percent

Importance of the Green Dot for recycling

The green dot is or was a trademark for the Dual System in Germany. It is and was used to mark packaging that was to be collected in the yellow bag, yellow garbage can, waste paper and waste glass containers and then disposed of.

The Green Dot was introduced in 1990, but has no longer been mandatory since the fifth amendment to the Packaging Ordinance. In essence, it signals that the packaging marked in this way is suitable for separate collection for disposal when it is completely empty. Information on how the separation is to be carried out can be obtained from the participants in the dual system or from the local authorities.

Conclusion: recycling and reuse are worthwhile

Recycling has a long history. Already several centuries ago, the principle was applied in simple forms. Today, the systems are much more sophisticated. In view of dwindling resources and the considerable burden of CO2 emissions and waste, disposable bottles made of plastic, but also of glass, are not the right solution for the future. The existing systems for reuse and recycling must be further expanded, if necessary by law, as manufacturers generally always take the path of least resistance and least cost.

FAQ

1. Since when have reusable packaging and recycling
   Both existed in ancient times. In ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, used glass and scrap metal in particular were collected, melted down and reprocessed. Greeks and Romans used clay amphorae for transporting and storing solid and liquid foods, which were reused until they broke.

2. How much waste do disposable bottles cause?
   In Germany, 17.4 billion disposable plastic bottles are consumed every year. This generates 450,000 tons of waste, some of which has a severe impact on the environment.

3. Since when have there been returnable systems with a deposit?
   The first bottle deposit for returnable bottles was levied on glass bottles in Sweden in 1885.