How the global political situation impacts on the work of dual systems

For several months now, you have been able to read in the press that global markets are undergoing tremendous change, mainly because of political developments, resulting in a dramatically deteriorating economic environment.

This also includes a steep rise in commodity prices, especially for gas. The reasons for this are well known. Why is that? After all, we can use other sources of energy as well. It is all due to the way in which the price of electricity is set. In Germany, we create electricity not just from gas, of course. Other sources include coal, wind or solar energy. However, as soon as these are no longer sufficient to generate the required amount of electricity, gas-fired power plants also come into play. And since the power plant that comes last determines the price, electricity is so expensive right now. This means that rising commodity prices are driving up the cost of energy production significantly.

In the waste management industry, we as a dual system feel this effect primarily in two ways: High fuel prices result in much higher transport costs, which we incur for the collection of packaging waste from end users, while energy costs for our entire system infrastructure (sorting, recycling) have gone up too by as much as 30% along the entire value chain.

Added to this are factors such as higher system costs for bins and bags, highly volatile commodity markets, rising vehicle procurement costs, and the much publicised shortage of skilled workers.

Although these are challenging times, we firmly believe that we must not overlook the protection of our climate, which remains a pressing issue. Climate action requires a well-functioning and healthy circular economy that is still able to meet stringent recycling targets despite the challenges we face going forward – in accordance with our vision of a world without waste.