Used packaging: Residual waste or recycling?
Even if it sounds strange at first, our answer is: both are possible. The recovery of recycling waste (yellow bag, yellow bin or collection container for packaging) in Germany, is regulated by the Dual System. The companies in the recycling industry take care of the collection, sorting and material-optimised recycling of sales and disposable packaging.
However, in reality not everything that is correctly disposed of in the recycling waste is recycled. In fact, a lot of the recycled waste is pressed into waste pellets, which are used as fuel for industry, for example. In the end, a large proportion of the recycled waste is thus combusted, as is the waste that is disposed of with the residual waste. Currently, the thermal recycling of articles made from plant-based raw materials is the most ecologically sound solution.
As a result, they are also used for energy generation and reduce the fossil greenhouse gas share that is produced during combustion. When our packaging is combusted, only that part of CO2 is released into the atmosphere that the plant has absorbed from the atmosphere during its growth process.