Plastic levy: introduction in Germany for companies

Following the Federal Constitutional Court’s budget decision, the German government has made changes to the budget for the upcoming years. These changes also affect the circular economy: for example, through the plastic levy.

This levy relates to a charge that was introduced by the EU in 2021. However, while the EU requires member states to contribute to the EU budget with 80 cents for every kilogram of plastic packaging waste that is not recycled, the Germany levy (also called “plastic tax”) would require producers to contribute for the use of plastics in products from 1 January 2025. Other details are still not known.

In recent years, this levy has been paid directly from the German federal budget to the EU at an annual cost of around 1.4 billion euros. However, with the agreement reached by the German government’s coalition leaders, the EU plastic levy will no longer be financed by taxpayers’ money but will be passed on to the relevant manufacturers.

This goal was already set out in the coalition agreement and has been confirmed and implemented by the current budget debate.

The federal budget underwent final discussions in the German federal parliament, and the process was completed on 2 February.

With this new obligation, Germany follows Italy, Spain and the UK in introducing this type of charge for producers.

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