Abstract for: The establishment of container-deposit on single-use beverage packaging in Germany

In 2003, the German government instated bottle deposit on disposable beverage packaging as means to enhance the use of reusable packaging. The new law was followed by a short increase of the usage of reusable packaging, but then it continued to decrease. In this paper, the different arguments around the instatement of the deposit on single use beverage containers are summarized and a system dynamics model of this case of policy resistance is derived. This model of the single use container and reusable container deposit system shows that the process of the implementation of the policy itself creates incentives for retailers and producers to supply beverages in disposable packaging instead of using multi-cycle packaging.