PAMIRA - Industrieverband Agrar

The PAMIRA-System

Association of the
Crop Protection
and Fertilizer Industry
in Germany

Corporation for the
Recovery of Industrial
and Commercial Plastic
Packaging Ltd.

How does it work?

Collection Points & Dates 2010

Deutsch

Recovery of Agricultural Packaging all over Germany since 1996

Since 1996, the agricultural pesticide industry and distributive trade offers by means of PAMIRA-System a German-wide recycling system for packaging used for its products. PAMIRA is the abbreviation of the German name PAckMIttel-Rücknahme Agrar = Recovery of Agricultural Packaging.

At the beginning of the ´90s, the PAMIRA-System has voluntarily been developed by the trade and companies manufacturing agricultural pesticides joining the German Crop Protection, Pest Control and Fertilizer Association (IVA). The crucial trial run took place in 1995 in the new German federal states. From the beginning, a return rate of more than 30% was reached.

PAMIRA is intended to be a bring system. Only once a year, the 250 collection points are open one to four days in which the farmer can return his used packaging. This packaging is checked with regard to its cleanliness and then registered and processed by efficient disposal companies. The processed plastic canisters are recycled to be used as a source of energy in cement plants or as raw material for the production of methanol.

The pesticide industry assumes the costs for collection, logistics, control, preparation and recycling of the returned packaging. The trade market provides the collection points. For the farmer, the return of packaging is free of charge.

The Packaging Directive of 1998 created a legal framework for PAMIRA, whose requirements the recovery system entirely fulfils. Beyond the legal recovery obligations, PAMIRA takes back all packaging used for agricultural pesticides and ensures that this is recycled in an environmentally compatible way. PAMIRA considers this task to be part of the voluntary initiative of the chemical industry regarding its responsible activities. Thus the situation concerning the disposal activities of the farmer remains transparent. In 1999, PAMIRA started a pilot project for the return of pickling tanks. In the meantime, this system is also firmly established.

On January 1, 2003, the management of PAMIRA-System has passed from the Chemistry Business Promotion Corporation (CWFG) to the Corporation for the Recovery of Industrial and Commercial Plastic Packaging (RIGK). RIGK was one of the four recovery companies already involved in the collection and recycling of packaging. The IVA continues to keep up the political responsibility on PAMIRA.

In the meantime, the PAMIRA-System attracts a great deal of international attention. In Germany the recovery of returned packaging used for agricultural pesticides through this voluntary bring system has achieved considerably high rates.