Reclay as a reliable partner for citizens throughout Europe

On the occasion of various reports about Reclay in connection with the change of waste disposal service provider in the district of Mühldorf in Bavaria, we have published this plain text.

Within our group of companies, we are responsible for operating a large number of different systems for collecting and recycling used packaging throughout Europe.

More than 15 million people across Europe benefit from Reclay as a tender manager

As a tender leader, we are directly responsible for organising the collection of household packaging waste for more than 15 million citizens in countries such as Germany, France, Austria and Slovakia. We see this as part of our core business, in which we demonstrate our many years of international expertise on a daily basis.

As part of our responsibility, we are committed to fair competition along the entire value chain.Taking Germany as an example, the contract is awarded to the responsible waste disposal company for the respective regions in a transparent and regulated tendering process. As the tender leader, only the best-priced offer is submitted to us for review. If the legally prescribed inspection routines for this provider are subsequently positive, we are obliged under the German Packaging Act to award the contract – we support this process!

Fair competition is always in the interests of consumers

After all, this process is one of the vehicles that promote competition, which we believe is so important. In this context, fair competition and a transparent pricing policy are always in the interests of consumers. An increase in disposal costs must ultimately be borne by industrial and commercial companies, which in turn is reflected in product prices. In the end, those who have to buy overpriced products in supermarkets would suffer from a lack of competition.

In recent months, we believe that the necessary framework conditions for fair competition have not been in place in the district of Mühldorf.At the beginning of the year, a new waste disposal service provider was appointed here in accordance with the tender specifications.We provided very close support throughout the entire period in order to ensure that everything ran smoothly despite all the challenges – such as the usual familiarisation phase with the new area, difficult weather conditions and a very high volume of waste at the turn of the year.

Senseless pressure in the region of Mühldorf

However, the responsible district office in Mühldorf has shown little co-operation from the beginning of the change of service provider and has made our work and that of the responsible waste disposal service provider much more difficult. With statements that in some cases lacked any factual basis, the regional media quickly blamed us for the irregularities in the collection of the yellow bags and put our company under massive pressure.

In our perception, this was actively used to stir up public opinion against us as the tender leader and against the responsible waste disposal service provider. At no time was this sensible or appropriate, as we were already campaigning daily for a solution to the situation on behalf of the citizens of the district.

Ultimately, we arranged for a change of waste disposal service provider on our own initiative and in no way in response to a reminder from the district administration. Such a change is also strictly regulated for antitrust reasons and therefore simply cannot be implemented from one day to the next.

Transparent competition is necessary for a functioning circular economy

As in all other regions in which we assume responsibility as tender leader, we will continue to advocate the proper collection and recycling of packaging waste in the district of Mühldorf. We assume that this proper process can be ensured by the change of service provider. Looking back, we are disappointed by the behaviour of the district administration and the one-sided reporting in the regional media.

For the future, we would like to see fairer dealings with each other in our joint endeavour to enable a circular economy and the recycling of important resources within the framework of transparent competition.