Making the Recyclability of Packaging Transparent

Whether recyclability or the proportion of recycled material: recyclability is becoming increasingly important. On the one hand, this is due to legal obligations under the Packaging Act. But they are also important for informing customers, dual systems, and the Central Packaging Register (ZSVR) in order to communicate the recyclability of yogurt pots, shampoo bottles, and other product wrappers.

Distributors, such as consumer product manufacturers, face the challenge of providing evidence that their product packaging is recyclable. Waste management defines packaging as recyclable if it can be recycled after separate collection and waste treatment. For more transparency, the data attribute “recyclability” is now available in the network of international data pools (GDSN). This is pointed out by the Forum Rezyklat.

In the run-up to the event, experts defined the necessary content in the “Digitization Package” of the Forum Rezyklat and submitted it for standardization via GS1 committees. Using the example of a combination pack, the experts also succinctly describe in a free guide how companies can best provide the data for the GDSN. The document is available for free download at Forum Rezyklat.

Uniform Transmission of Data

In combination with the already existing attribute “recyclate”, this provides companies with the necessary set of data fields in the GDSN to uniformly communicate the recyclability of their packaging to all partners as part of the product data, informs Forum Rezyklat. This gives manufacturers of sales packaging and secondary packaging, which typically accumulates as waste for example in private end consumer households, further advantages. This is because they are obligated to acquire a financial interest in the dual systems, and since 2019 the fees incurred for this are also based on how well a package can be recycled.

Companies can optionally upload the existing proof, for example in the form of a certificate of product-related recyclability, in the GDSN via the attribute “M378”."

“In this, it is of high importance that consumer goods manufacturers serve this additional attribute in order to achieve a broad use of the data attribute for recyclability. Via GDSN, the information can be distributed efficiently in a one-to-many process, i.e., once set, it is simultaneously accessible to all partners involved,” explains Axel Trahms, project manager at Rossmann.
The Forum Rezyklat was initiated by dm-drogerie markt in 2018 and sees itself as an agile alliance. More than 70 members consisting of retailers, product and packaging manufacturers, dual systems, disposal and recycling companies, as well as representatives from science and politics represent the entire value chain along the circular economy. Together, they work in the Forum Rezyklat on practical and consumer-oriented strategies and measures.