Declining reporting volumes despite 1 million registrations

At the end of March, the German packaging register “Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (ZSVR)” published the German PROs’ market shares for the second quarter based on the interim reports.

In the category of lightweight packaging, a decline in reported volumes can be observed. This is a development that we cannot understand.

Reclay customers report as planned

We did not observe this decline among companies that report their quantities placed on the market to Reclay. The interim reports from our customers were as expected.

Reported volumes fall, collection volumes rise

We receive information from the waste disposal companies that we commission to collect waste from the yellow bin or yellow sack about the quantities collected in the areas in which we act as tender leader. Based on this information, the total collection volume in Germany can be extrapolated.

Based on the extrapolation, we see a stable or slightly increasing trend in the collection volume. The basic fact that the collection volume is higher than the reported volume is normal. However, declining reported volumes with an increasing collection volume is a cause for concern.

Global economic figures point upwards

Conservative volume reporting is also not uncommon in economically challenging times. However, current economic information indicates that, from a global perspective, sales are no longer falling, but that the figures are rising again.

Our expectation would have been that this easing of the overall economic situation would also be reflected in the reported quantities of packaging placed on the market – because growing consumption by end consumers is normally also reflected in rising packaging quantities.

ZSVR reports 1 million registrations

At the beginning of April, the ZSVR announced that the threshold of 1 million registrations in the LUCID packaging register had been broken. This is a very welcome development that shows that more and more companies are fulfilling their obligations under the Packaging Act.

However, even in light of this information, we are surprised by the results of the interim reports. Normally, new registrations should lead to increasing volume reports. We hope that the ZSVR is also monitoring this situation, because despite all the joy about new registrations, they must not be used as smoke and mirrors.