The Green Dot
The Green Dot system was thought up by Klaus Töpfer, Germany's environment minister in the early 1990s. The basic idea of the Green Dot is that consumers who see the logo know that the manufacturer of the product contributes to the cost of recovery and recycling. This can be with household waste collected by the authorities (e.g. in special bags - in Germany these are yellow), or in containers in public places such as car parks and outside supermarkets.
The system is financed by the green dot licence fee paid by the producers of the products. Fees vary by country and are based on the material used in packaging (e.g. paper, plastic, metal, wood, cardboard). Each country also has different fees for joining the scheme and ongoing fixed and variable fees. Fees also take into account the cost of collection, sorting and recycling methods.
In simple terms, the system encourages manufacturers to cut down on packaging as this saves them the cost of licence fees.
Since 1970, and the arrival of the recycle symbol, chasing arrows has meant recycle, recycled or recyclable. In 1990, the green dot adopted the same graphic motif with a different meaning. The green dot logo merely indicates that a company has joined the green dot scheme, and not necessarily that the package is fully recyclable.
A good system in theory, a misleading symbol in practice. In use by 130,000 companies appearing on 460 billion packages every year and is the most widely used trademark in the world. Paid for by brands, many with unrecyclable products, the symbol is thought to be responsible for huge quantities of recycling contamination.
It’s time the penny dropped.
Change the symbol.
Change the system.
