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Germany
July 17, 2025
Changes in the deposit return schemes in Ireland, Moldova, and Romania; modification in single-use plastic fees in Germany and the Netherlands; food contact material regulation updates in Denmark and Switzerland; and other news from the Nordic Council of Ministers, Iceland, Portugal, and the UK
Topics: Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Moldova, Netherlands, Portugal, regulation, Romania, single-use plastics, Switzerland, UK
Reading time: 7 minutes
June 2, 2025
Scientists analyze currently used indicators for monitoring and enforcing waste prevention; include 123 national and company indicators in Europe; analysis reveals large disparities, inconsistencies, and gaps in current waste prevention indicators, potentially enabling greenwashing
Reading time: 3 minutes
April 10, 2025
German consumer organization analyzes ten pizza boxes for bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS); detects BPA and BPS in nine and eight, respectively; migration into pizza was found in four samples for BPA and eight for BPS; attributes bisphenol content to contaminated recycling streams
Reading time: 2 minutes
February 28, 2024
German biomonitoring study finds mono-n-hexyl phthalate in majority of samples, indicating widespread exposure to substance of very high concern (SVHC) di-n-hexyl phthalate or related compounds; sources of exposure currently under investigation; contribution of food contact materials to human exposure possible, but only limited data available
Reading time: 3 minutes
December 6, 2023
Over fifty experts researching the health effects of chemical exposures sign letter to German authorities expressing concerns about recent actions concerning bisphenol regulation in Europe; encourage resubmission of bisphenol restriction proposal and for the country to once again take the lead on regulatory action regarding endocrine disrupting chemicals in Europe
Reading time: 2 minutes
October 28, 2022
Germany proposes restricting bisphenol A (BPA), other bisphenols, and derivatives as additives in articles to 0.02% by weight; also to introduce release rates to prevent migration into environment or organisms; proposal now under review by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) Committee for Risk Assessment
Reading time: 0 minutes
September 7, 2022
Zero Waste Europe and Eunomia investigate the circularity of single-use container glass in Germany, France, the UK and US; Germany has the highest collection rates for glass and the highest proportion of recycled glass in containers; US is the lowest due to lack of collection facilities and mixed collection of glass with other packaging types; collecting glass separately and by color is the most effective way to increase circularity
Reading time: 3 minutes
March 18, 2022
California Ocean Protection Council (COPC) publishes unanimously-approved roadmap for state microplastics policy; includes 22 possible immediate actions to limit microplastics based on current knowledge and a 13-point research strategy to inform later actions; German government publishes report on the state of knowledge of microplastics pollution and options for action
Reading time: 3 minutes
March 1, 2022
UK civil society organization Wrap finds selling produce without plastic packaging and date labels would save 100,000 tons food and 10,300 tons plastic in UK yearly; fruits and vegetables studied have the same shelf life without packaging; packaging sizes encourage overconsumption; date labeling encourages early disposal; Foodwatch petitions German government to ban plastic packaging for produce by 2026
Reading time: 2 minutes
July 13, 2021
Participants at the Berlin Forum on Chemicals and Sustainability discuss goals and build momentum for the upcoming 5th International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5); ministerial dialogue took place July 7th; stakeholder dialogue held on July 8th with over 800 participants
Reading time: 1 minute
