In the first six months of 2007 the multi-trip packaging took 30.7% of the beverage packaging market while the same period this year took just 27.2%.

In 2003, prior to the introduction of the “Dosenpfand” deposit on single-trip packaging, multi-trip packaging took more than 50% of the market.

Widely reported in German print and online media last week, the data has set off a debate on whether the deposit scheme has failed. This is because its objective was to increase the proportion of multi-trip packaging.

The DUH environment association has responded by calling for a 20 cent deposit on single-trip bottles. The Federal German environment ministry said there are presently no prospects of such a deposit and dismissed claims that the deposit scheme had failed as rubbish.

It stated that the multi-trip system would have collapsed already a long time ago were it not for the deposit. It also doubted the validity of the GfK data, since it included fruit juice packaging on which there is no deposit.

But the WAFG association of non-alcoholic beverage producers used the opportunity to lay the blame on politics for having already unnecessarily damaged a functioning multi-trip system.

WAFG warned of a potential wave of bankruptcies among medium-sized beverage producers who cannot afford the switch to single-trip packaging. This could mean as many as 20,000 jobs lost in the view of the GFGH beverage wholesalers association.

The Die Welt newspaper stated that experts believed the multi-trip share may fall well below 20%. This will occur, it said, once the supermarkets go the same way as the discount retailers by also favouring more single-trip packaging.

As the newspaper reported, the HDE retailers association said that it had warned right from the beginning of the effect of the deposit on multi-trip systems. The warning had been based on experience gained earlier with compulsory deposit systems in Scandinavia.

According to GfK data, 63% of single-trip non-alcoholic bottles in Germany are now in plastic, 13.7% multi-trip plastic and 13.5% glass multi-trip. Glass single-trip, cartons and metal cans (“Dosen”) trail well behind. The situation is however quite different with beer, for which the multi-trip packaging share has climbed to around 90%.