Boris Palmer is not one to avoid a debate. The mayor of Tübingen, who is threatened with party exclusion proceedings from the Greens because of controversial statements on refugee and corona policy, took the train to Mannheim to the administrative court and defended the packaging tax introduced by his city. Since the beginning of the year, Tübingen has been charging 50 cents for disposable packaging, such as to-go cups or disposable boxes for takeaway food. 20 cents are due for disposable cutlery, and a maximum of 1.50 euros per meal. The points of sale, including restaurants and bakeries, have to pay for it.
It’s about, Palmer said at the hearing, “whether a municipality can do more than the inadequate efforts of the state”. The waste of resources must stop. He called the dual system used to organize waste collection and recycling a “self-deception event”.
According to the federal government, Germans throw away 770 tons of take-away disposable packaging every day. The Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) registers that the problem is constantly growing. Food is increasingly being eaten in public spaces, after which the rubbish bins are full and parks or squares are dirty. With the tax, Tübingen wanted to encourage suppliers and consumers to use reusable packaging. According to the city administration, this also worked, in January 15 percent less waste ended up in the city’s garbage cans. But the Tübingen experiment will probably end soon.
The local McDonald’s branch sued against the municipal tax. The franchisee said she couldn’t pass the cost on to customers. McDonald’s supported the lawsuit on the grounds that isolated solutions were not feasible for a nationwide company. On Wednesday, the court declared the tax invalid. A reason for the judgment was announced for April.
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The fact that McDonald’s of all people was suing against the packaging tax enraged the German Environmental Aid (DUH), after all, the fast food company in Germany is “one of the really big polluters of the climate, waste and the environment” and produced 51,000 tons of packaging waste in 2019 alone. In France or England, on the other hand, McDonald’s would switch to reusable packaging.
The federal government has also set itself the goal of reducing packaging waste, which is why it is currently in the process of implementing an EU directive. According to this, the manufacturers of plastic packaging should pay a levy into a fund from which the municipalities can pay the cleaning costs. In addition, from 2023 suppliers of take-away food must also offer reusable packaging.
But Tübingen’s tax idea isn’t quite over yet. Mayor Palmer is promoting the possibility of appealing the verdict before the Federal Administrative Court. Because: “For environmental and climate protection, but also for the community as a whole, it is a problem when new paths are built and good solutions are banned.”