In Germany, in 1992 the City of Kassel established a local tax on non-reusable packaging and cutlery used at special events, restaurants and snack bars, and institutions such as hospitals and residential homes. The tax was 0.5 DM per disposable item. The tax was replicated in more than 30 other cities including Frankfurt and Dresden.(16)

Some cities allowed exemptions to the tax. In Kassel, for example, the foodservice operator was exempt if it was a member of DSD, the organization that funds the recycling of used consumer packaging. Kassel’s tax was intended to encourage companies to recycle. In Kiel, the operator’s tax payments could be refunded if it achieved a set recycling rate for foodservice disposables. Frankfurt, however, granted no exemptions. The tax was intended to force foodservice operators to switch to washable items. Indeed, the Explanatory Memorandum to the tax law specifically stated that if the market does not move away from disposables, the tax rate would be progressively increased until the change was made.

One result of the taxes was the rise of a new service industry in Germany that provides and washes returnable cups, plates, and cutlery.(17)

McDonald’s and two other companies legally challenged the packaging taxes in Kassel, based not on environmental grounds but on whether the communities had the right to impose the tax. They lost their legal battles at the local and state level, but the German Supreme Court eventually sided with them, suspending the taxes in 1998 because local and state regulations have to mesh with policies of the federal government, which has the primary responsibility for waste laws. In Germany, the federal government puts more emphasis on cooperation with industry, so the taxes were repealed.(18) Here in the U.S., the local packaging taxes may work as the federal government does not have such authority over local and state waste or tax laws.

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