Germany's new packaging act is in force and its plastic levy is billed by the kilogram, while the plastic packaging tax is still only reported

Four layers, three of them law

A German packaging bill now has four possible layers, and they differ in who sets them, who collects the money and how certain they are. Exhibit 2 puts them side by side.

The layers stack rather than replace each other. A to-go cup sold in Germany needs a PPWR-conform design, a dual system contract if it ends up with households, and a fund levy payment; the SPI rule note for PR-DE-001 records that paying one does not discharge the other. If the reported tax comes, the same cup would carry a fourth charge on the weight of its plastic.

The household structures behind the second layer are large. Eurostat data in SPI’s Germany note show 215.19 kg of packaging waste per person in 2023, against an EU average of 177.8 kg, with 51.3% of German plastic packaging recycled against 41.7% for the EU. The Zentrale Stelle allocated 2025 market shares to ten dual systems, from BellandVision to ZENTEK, on annual reports filed on 1 June 2026. The Germany page of the SPI Regulation Tracker holds both national rules, PR-DE-001 and PR-DE-002.

The VerpackDG: from bill to law

The legislative path ran in four months. The federal government tabled its bill as Bundestag Drucksache 21/5346 on 15 April 2026, the Bundestag adopted it on 11 June 2026, the Bundesrat let it pass on 10 July 2026, and it was signed on 13 July 2026 (Exhibit 3). The Act’s own title is the Gesetz zur Durchführung der Verordnung (EU) 2025/40 betreffend Verpackungen, and the government bill says it legislates only where the PPWR requires national rules, mandates them or leaves Member States room (Drucksache 21/5346).

The Bundesrat’s consent came with a list of complaints. Its resolution regrets that the government and the Bundestag largely ignored its earlier amendments, asks for a prompt amending law, criticises the cap in section 42(2) on alternative recycling routes for plastics, chemical recycling in particular, and asks for quick ordinances on eco-modulated fees under section 26a (Bundesrat Drucksache 377/26 (Beschluss), 10 July 2026). SPI has not yet confirmed a date for that amending law.

The government framed the result as continuity with tighter targets. Its release on the day of entry into force lists an EU-harmonised sorting label, avoidance of hard-to-recycle plastics and substances such as PFAS, limits on oversized packaging, and a plastic recycling quota of 75% for the dual systems from 2028, while keeping existing German structures to limit bureaucracy (Bundesregierung, 12 August 2026). Der Grüne Punkt, one of the ten dual systems, reported after the Bundestag vote that the plastic quota rises to 80% from 2030 and that the environment committee added incentives for environmentally friendly design.

What producers must do under the VerpackDG

Exhibit 4 lists the producer duties that carry over from the Verpackungsgesetz, with the VerpackDG section that now holds each one.

LUCID registration. Section 6 obliges producers to register with the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister, which under the VerpackDG is also the register authority for the PPWR. The Zentrale Stelle’s guidance says registration remains the producer’s own task with no exemption, and that a company whose name or brand appears on the packaging counts as both manufacturer and producer. Without a brand, the answer depends on the packaging type: sales and grouped packaging generally trigger duties once filled. A foreign company counts as producer only where it ships directly from abroad to a German end user.

The authorised representative. From 12 August 2026 a producer based abroad that sells to German end users without a German branch must appoint an authorised representative, which was voluntary before. The representative must be named at the initial LUCID registration, and producers already registered are prompted to add one when they log in (Zentrale Stelle). SPI’s rule note for PR-DE-001 also records the interaction with the EU Omnibus proposal on authorised representatives, which the PPWR after August 2026 piece follows.

System participation and data. Section 7 requires producers of household packaging to join one or more dual systems before making it available. Section 9 asks them to report registration number, material types and mass, the system and the period to the Zentrale Stelle without delay after reporting to the system; producers under 10 tonnes a year may report once, by 1 June of the following year. Section 68(1) is the clause to read this quarter: participations agreed under the old law before 12 August 2026 continue, unless agreed otherwise, but no longer than 31 December 2026.

The declaration of completeness. Section 10 keeps the thresholds of the old law (Exhibit 5).

The Zentrale Stelle adds three points that change the workload for 2027. The check must be done by an auditor registered with it, a Sachverständiger, Wirtschaftsprüfer, Steuerberater or vereidigter Buchprüfer, under its audit guidelines. The deadline moves to the next working day if 15 May falls on a weekend or holiday, and no extension is possible. And for reporting year 2026 the declaration is filed formally under the VerpackDG but in substance under the Verpackungsgesetz, which matches section 68(5): for packaging made available in 2026, only section 10 applies, and the data follow the old law’s material breakdown.

Recycled content in PET bottles. Section 45(1) allows producers to place single-use plastic drink bottles made mainly of PET on the German market only if they contain at least 25% recycled plastic by mass. Section 45(2) raises this to 30% from 1 January 2030 and drops the PET qualifier, so it reaches all single-use plastic drink bottles (gesetze-im-internet.de). A consolidated text of section 45(3) allows the share to be met across a producer’s annual volume, with records of recyclate type and mass shown to the Land authority on request. The EU targets in PR-EU-004 run in parallel; the deposit return piece covers the German deposit those bottles sit in.

The reusable offer. Section 60 requires final distributors that fill food into single-use plastic food packaging or drinks into single-use cups at the point of sale to offer the same goods in reusable packaging, including lids for cups. The reusable option may not be offered at a higher price or on worse terms than the single-use one, and clearly visible signs must tell customers about it, with the same notice in the media used for deliveries. Staff vending machines in non-public business premises are exempt. Section 61, in its consolidated text, lets shops with no more than five employees and a sales area of 80 m2 or less meet the duty by filling customers’ own containers.

Enforcement: three fine bands and a delayed list

Section 66 sets the fine ceilings, and section 67 allows confiscation. The Länder prosecute offences through the authority their own law names, according to the Umweltbundesamt page recorded in SPI’s rule note.

A second enforcement route works through the market rather than the courts. Section 13 bars distributors and fulfilment service providers from handling packaging of producers not properly registered, and the register’s automated check supports that bar (SPI rule note PR-DE-001). For a marketplace seller, a missing LUCID entry is therefore a delisting risk before it is a fine risk.

The single-use plastic fund: rates and money

The Einwegkunststofffondsgesetz, published in May 2023, implements Article 8 of the SUP Directive through a public fund rather than private schemes. Producers of listed single-use plastic products register on the UBA’s DIVID platform, report the previous year’s mass by 15 May, and pay a levy set by UBA notice. Rates are in section 2 of the Einwegkunststofffondsverordnung, which the Bundestag received as Drucksache 20/8128 (Exhibit 7).

The rates follow litter cost, not material cost. A deposit-bearing drink container pays EUR 0.001 per kg because few are littered, while a container without deposit pays EUR 0.181, 181 times as much. Cups, at EUR 1.236, pay 7.0 times the food container rate of EUR 0.177. The UBA page gives a calculated rate of EUR 0.691 per kg for fireworks with plastic parts, to be set in the ordinance by the end of 2026; BMUKN says fireworks become levy-liable from 2027 and that rates are first reviewed by the end of 2026. SPI has not yet confirmed an amended ordinance.

Two scope decisions since 2024 narrow the base. On 3 November 2025 the UBA introduced a 500 gram threshold by administrative regulation: bags, wrappers and food containers with contents over 500 grams no longer pay the levy. The UBA’s announcement says empty food containers such as takeaway boxes and salad bowls also fall under the threshold; its administrative rule (version of 23 March 2026) adds that a container sold empty stays liable unless the producer shows in the individual case that it is actually filled with more than 500 grams. The UBA’s example is the film around a 750 gram Christmas stollen. The second is the classification route: borderline products are judged against the Commission’s SUP guidelines, or by a binding, fee-based UBA classification (BMUKN).

The plastic packaging tax: what is reported, what is confirmed

SPI separates the plastic packaging tax into what an official text says and what the press reports. As of 24 October 2026 the first column is almost empty. SPI found no Bundestag Drucksache and no finance ministry publication for a Kunststoffverpackungsteuergesetz. What exists is a draft “Formulierungshilfe” with a working date of 30 September 2026, posted by the trade title packaging-journal.de, press reports from 5 October onwards, and an association statement of 9 October 2026. Exhibit 9 sets out each point and its status.

The rate. Tagesspiegel reported on 5 October 2026 a tax of EUR 550 per 1,000 kg of plastic from 1 July 2027, and ad-hoc-news and recycling.de repeated the figure. The draft text SPI read describes a tax measured on the weight of plastic contained in the packaging, but the sections SPI could read do not state the rate. The association statement of 9 October does not state it either. SPI therefore treats EUR 550 per tonne as reported and has not yet confirmed it.

The design. According to the draft, Article 1 enters into force on 1 January 2027 and the tax applies to taxable events after 30 June 2027, with the 2027 tax due in August 2027. The base would be plastic packaging and films, plus composite packaging where the plastic share exceeds 5%; free transfers between private individuals would be exempt; and customs offices would administer it. The draft opens by citing the cabinet’s decision of 6 July 2026 on the 2027 budget and plan to 2030, and links the revenue to the amount Germany pays the EU under the plastic own resource. The plastic packaging taxes piece explains that EUR 0.80 per kg contribution (PR-EU-017) and the taxes Spain, Italy and the UK built on it.

The money and the cost. The draft estimates federal revenue of EUR 805 million at full-year effect in 2027 and EUR 670 million in the cash year, then EUR 1,485 million (full year) and EUR 1,505 million (cash) in 2028, falling to EUR 1,415 million by 2031. It puts business compliance cost at about EUR 8.837 million once and EUR 44.103 million a year, and new posts at 788 in customs, 28 at the federal IT service and 3 at the finance ministry. The 33 associations argue that 819 posts are too few and that a realistic control effort would need more than 1,300; Kleeberg reports that the customs union expects about 2,000.

The vehicle and the hearing. Press and the associations describe the tax as an amendment to the Haushaltsbegleitgesetz 2027, Bundestag Drucksache 21/7860. The Bundestag’s own report on the budget committee hearing of 12 October 2026 lists higher duties on alcohol, sparkling wine and alcopops as the bill’s tax measures and does not mention plastic. It adds that the finance committee has set its own hearing on the tax measures for 9 November 2026 (Bundestag text archive; hib 811/2026). The 9 November date is therefore confirmed for that hearing; SPI has not yet confirmed that the plastic packaging tax will be on its agenda.

The politics. ms-aktuell reported on 17 October 2026 that a cabinet decision planned for 14 October was postponed after resistance from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, whose leader called the draft not approvable in its current form. Kleeberg reported on 19 October that at least 24 CDU/CSU members would not back it as drafted and that the coalition groups still had to agree the design. Reports also differ on which ministry leads: Tagesspiegel names the environment ministry, ad-hoc-news the finance ministry. SPI has not yet confirmed either.

Scenarios: the levy and the reported tax on one basket

SPI priced one 50-tonne basket of plastic packaging for a hypothetical takeaway operator in Germany. The basket is an SPI assumption, not a market average: 38 tonnes are fund products and 12 tonnes are other plastic packaging, such as stretch film and secondary film, that the fund does not reach (Exhibit 11).

Cups are 20% of the weight and 54.0% of the levy. At the reported tax rate of EUR 0.55 per kg, a 10 gram cup would carry 0.55 euro cent of tax against 1.236 euro cent of levy, so the reported tax per kg is 44.5% of the cup levy rate but 3.1 times the food container rate. That is why the tax would change the bill most for operators heavy in containers and film.

Exhibit 12 sets out five cases.

Three readings follow. The tax, if adopted as reported, would be larger than the levy on this basket from its first full year. Recyclate relief that starts a year after the tax would be worth EUR 4,125 in 2028 on these assumptions, less than a sixth of the tax. And the import treatment is worth more than the recyclate relief: EUR 6,600 a year on 12 tonnes, which is why domestic converters object to it. All figures are in euro; none are summed with any other currency.

A framework: four German producer positions

SPI groups producers by two tests: whether their packaging ends up with households (and so needs a dual system), and whether it includes fund products. The plastic tax, as reported, would cut across all four.

Position 4 has the longest runway and the least visible deadline. Producers of packaging outside system participation may operate without section 19 approval until 31 December 2027, and other producer responsibility organisations until 31 October 2027; approval carries a fee (Zentrale Stelle). The Zentrale Stelle’s 2026 minimum standard on recyclable design, published under section 26 and in place for systems from 31 August 2026, is meanwhile the reference for fee modulation until BMUKN issues ordinances under section 26a, which need the Bundesrat’s consent. SPI has not yet confirmed any draft of those ordinances.