According to media reports, the law has been delayed because there is still no practicable model for the tax on non-recycled plastic.

This was reported by Bild am Sonntag (BamS) with reference to government circles. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had informed his cabinet colleagues that the law would not be finalised in time. According to the BamS report, problems with data collection are one of the reasons for the threat of excessive bureaucracy. The Ministry of Finance had not been able to present a practicable financial model with regard to a regulation on who should pay how much for what. The search was now continuing for this so that the so-called plastic tax can possibly be introduced from 2026. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance told BamS: "The specific implementation is currently being coordinated between the Federal Chancellery, the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry of Finance." A plastic tax of 80 cents per kilogramme of non-recycled plastic packaging was already introduced in the EU in 2021. So far, the sum of around 1.4 billion euros per year due for Germany has been paid to Brussels from the national budget.
 
There is massive opposition to the plastic tax from the industry, reports the specialised service Euwid. The plastics industry had little interest in a one-sided tax. The German Plastics Processing Industry Association (GKV), the Association of German Plastics Manufacturers Plastics Europe Deutschland, the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) and the VDMA are in favour of the fund model envisaged in the coalition agreement for recycling-friendly packaging design and more use of recyclates within the dual system. Should a tax nevertheless be introduced, a cross-material design would be necessary in order to avoid ecologically detrimental substitution effects. In addition to plastic packaging, a tax solution would also have to cover packaging made of paper, cardboard, glass, metal, etc., according to the associations.
 
Sources:

• Bild am Sonntag (14.4.2024)
• euwid-recycling.de (16.4.2024)
• Photo: © FDP