The EC & member states are to investigate why some of the usually best performing member states are "no longer performing that well" on recycling & recovery targets at the next meeting of national experts on packaging, a Commission official recently said. There are "alarming signals" in the packaging waste data for 2006, she said taking the example of Germany, whose recycling rates went down for the first time. "We need to investigate what is the problem and what can the be done to improve things," she added. According to data provided by Germany, in 2003, 71% of its packaging waste was recycled with specific rates of 53% for plastics; 82% for metals; 81% off paper & 86% for glass. By 2006, Germany's overall recycling rate had fallen to 66.5% with 41.3% for plastics; 88.8% for metals, 80.2% for paper, & 82.4% for glass.
