A Better Package Deal?

Jana Debus instantly recognizes the circular, yin and yang-like symbol imprinted discreetly on her pizza cartons, pickle jars, and cans of Coke. The Grüne Punkt (Green Dot) means she can take the material to her local recycling bin and dump it in the appropriate container, knowing that it will be reprocessed into newspapers, bottles and even telephones.

Although seen by many consumers as a stamp of environmental approval, the ubiquitous symbol wasn't the invention of the German government but of a German company called Duales System Deutschland (DSD). The Cologne-based operation collects fees totaling $2 billion from 19,000 packagers in Germany...