99 bottles of beer on the wall: Germany’s rubbish experiment

As a Brit, there are many things you need to get used to if you’re going to live in Germany – mullets and schlager music to name a couple. If you go to a German supermarket, however, you’ll see a more subtle Teutonic quirk: people walking in with bags full of empty bottles.

Do the Germans really care about their environment so much more than us? Not really - each bottle is worth up to 25 cents. When you buy certain kinds of drink, you pay a deposit on top of the price – a deposit you get back if you return the bottle. The legislation behind this system recently celebrated its 10^th anniversary... what has it achieved?

At the end of the 90s, ecologically minded Germans were horrified to discover that overall use of disposable plastic bottles was increasing – accounting for 40% of the market. The election of the first SPD-Green government in 1998 meant that those same Germans now held the reigns of power. So, the then environment minister, Jürgen Trittin put forward his solution: requiring a large deposit on a wide range of single-use plastic bottles. The idea was to encourage users to purchase drinks in the now cheaper multi-use bottles (and recycle them, too).

Despite bitter opposition from supermarket chains and a rocky transitional period, the system (as it is now) launched in 2006. The result was not exactly what Trittin imagined. Single use bottles have gained in popularity – rising over 50% within 2 years of the scheme’s full introduction.

The problem is one of incentivisation: the supermarket chains are perversely encouraged to stock single use bottles. If the customer does not return the bottle, they keep the higher deposit (which can be more than the cost of the drink). Even if the customer wants the deposit back, it draws them back to the store.

On top of this, consumers generally don’t know the difference is between the single and multi-use bottles. So – as the ARD reports – they feel they’re doing a good deed by returning the single-use bottles, even though it’s far better for the environment to stick with multi-use. And, because the deposits are higher on the single-use bottles, consumers have a bigger incentive to return the bottles that are more difficult to recycle.

Despite all this, it’s difficult to imagine the system ending or being reformed – there's little political will, and has quickly become part of the fabric of German life. Even if it’s for the wrong reasons.