In September 2019 a German association was founded, which is called Biota e.V. (Association for Bio, Environmental and Climate Protection Tangle Applications) with the goal of reducing the flood of plastic waste worldwide. The amount of plastic waste on the planet is constantly increasing and, in addition to negative environmental influences, is now also affecting the health of many people. The current main project of the association runs under the name ‘Deposy’, which stands for ‘deposit system’. Deposy wants to preserve pure plastic waste through a specially developed deposit system as well as give people an incentive to collect and sort. In order to make the system attractive, more money is returned than was previously paid in deposit. According to the association, this could be achieved by potential government subsidies and donations, as well as from the value a sorted plastic waste possesses for further recycling process.

Since 1964 the production of plastic has increased twentyfold.

Currently, 400 million tons of plastic are produced annually worldwide and plastic production is expected to double in the next 20 years.

According to a study by management consultancy McKinsey, more than 30 percent of all plastic packaging does not enter an orderly recycling cycle, but is disposed elsewhere at the expense of nature. The experts estimate the resulting economic costs at 40 billion dollars per year. Micro-plastic particles produced during the decomposition of plastic waste are absorbed by humans and animals through nutrition and breathing air. According to experts, this entails increased health risks. On this occasion, a group of committed people joined together in a newly founded association to offer an opportunity to solve the problem.

The association believes that global plastic avoidance offers the greatest opportunity to restore the ecological balance. However, from a global perspective this is unfortunately an illusion, as scientists assume that plastic production will increase in the coming years. Looking at Europe, most plastic waste is either incinerated or shipped to Asia. A far too small percentage is actually recycled.

Since the beginning of 2019, the German legislator has introduced a stricter packaging law, which now also imposes certain recycling quotas on types of plastic. The current percentage is 58.5 % and by 2022 the quota that has to be taken back and recycled by the manufacturer will rise to 63 %. If the quota is not increased, there is a risk of heavy fines. This makes the recycling of plastics attractive to many companies. Previously, it was economically cheaper to produce new plastic and incinerate or ship old plastic. A global view shows that Germany is one of the few countries in the world to set such recycling quotas. Whether with or without quotas, the association would like to give the industry a greater incentive to recycle, because with the help of the new system the advantage of sorting according to type of plastic can be made possible.