TALLINN - Estonian retailers may receive an extra headache if amendments to the packaging law are approved, which would oblige them to collect empty bottles, containers and various wrappings.
Specifically, the amendments would force product distributors to organize collection points near stores where the packaged products are sold and to impose a deposit on recyclable packaging that consumers would receive after returning the material to the collection point.
Importers or producers of alcohol and soft drink packages who can prove they successfully arrange recycling of 60 percent of their package will not have to pay an additional fee known as the package excise tax, according to the amendments.
From January 2005 the recycling rate required to receive the tax exemption will grow by 10 percent to reach 70 percent and by yet another 10 percent in January 2006.
The idea behind the introduction of deposits ranging from 0.10 euro to 0.20 euro on beverage bottles is to promote the use of recyclable packages and thus decrease the amount of single-serve packaging.
Ilona Eskelinen, chairperson of the Estonian Packaging Union, an organization uniting local companies including the largest beverage producer Tartu Olletehas, said the bottle deposit imposed on single-serve packages made of material such as plastic was unjustified.
"Without participation of producers and retailers the deposit system will not start working. Should the deposit system be imposed by force, retailers would cut the retail areas for the products subject to the deposit rule or even stop selling them. That would hit small producers and importers," said Eskelinen.
According to Eskelinen, the package deposit would also violate the very principle of the free movement of goods within the EU.
"At the same time, the Estonian Packaging Union does not argue over the recyclable package system. Estonia should develop a single package collection system," she said.
Peeter Eek, head of the waste department of the Environment Affairs Ministry, said Estonia failed to achieve the 50 percent package-recycling rate by 2001, although this pledge was made in 1997, and that today the country needs an effective law on packaging.
In 2002, only 15 percent of all packages were recycled in Estonia.
"The present system of package collection is unsatisfactory. Consumers do not have enough opportunities to return packages and that is caused by both lack of package collection points and often by unhygienic conditions at the [already existing] points," said Eek.
He added that package waste had rapidly increased because of more active consumption of plastic (PET, or polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.
Eek said that according to the Tallinn Center of the Stockholm Environment Institute the total amount of packages marketed in Estonia annually makes roughly 150,000 tons.
According to the package registry, out of nearly 3,290 tons of plastic bottles sold in 2002 about 2,024 tons were recycled.
Pursuant to the amendments, distributors will be able to make an agreement with a recycling company and switch the package collection responsibility to them.
The ministry wants the beverage producers to form a special union that will arrange the collection and recycling of package, otherwise every producer will have contract with every shop that will be a total mess.
"Practical experience shows that producers of beverages sold in plastic package are not interested in collecting more than the 60 percent minimum since that means extra expenses for them. The situation in different with the glass package products - producers gather over 80 percent of the used bottles because they can be used again," said Pille Joekaar, specialist of the waste department of the ministry.
Joekaar said the amendments had just been signed by the minister and published online. After feedback from the private sector and other ministries and governmental approval they will reach the Parliament.
The package law amendments are part of the tens of legal acts to be fixed before Estonia's EU accession on May 1.
