The German Environment Minister, Juergen Trittin, has given the country’s drinks industry until the end of the week to settle the dispute over the country’s new recycling programme after the industry unilaterally pulled out of an agreement to implement the programme by October last week.
Trittin said that if no agreement was reached, drinks companies would be ordered to implement the new measures immediately.
The country’s drinks industry withdrew from the agreement it had made over the new recycling programme relating to non-refillable bottles and cans last week, saying that it was no longer sure of its legal position in light of comments by the European Commission.
At the beginning of 2003, the German government introduced deposit charges on bottles and cans of beer, mineral water and soft drinks. Deposits were already being charged on returnable bottles. The drinks industry has said that the recycling programme imposes disproportionately high costs on drinks producers.
