Preamble:
According to anthropologist Kay Milton and others, sustainable development is expected to be achieved through three main routes.  First, patterns of production and consumption, especially in the developed North, need to change.  Second, the international economy needs to be organized on more equitable lines.  And third, environmentally sound technologies need to be developed and madewidely availabe (1996:184-5).  This section represents a broad (and necessarily incomplete) cross sample of organizations involved in promoting alternatives to consumption and consumer responsibility.

List of Domains and Topics:

1. Alternatives to Consumerism

Voluntary Simplicity/Lifestyle Alternatives

Fair Trade
Labor Standards
Certification

Voluntary Simplicity/Lifestyle Alternatives

1. New Road Map Foundation
(Seattle, WA)
"The New Road Map Foundation (NRM) is a non-profit educational organization that provides people with practical tools and innovative approaches for managing and mastering basic life challenges. NRM is a values-based organization that believes strongly that careful attention to the ethics, attitudes, beliefs and expectations around any endeavor will affect the outcome. An all-volunteer organization, NRM promotes service as a route to personal health and social revitalization. All income from the NRM’s programs is donated to projects and organizations committed to a sustainable future for our world. NRM’s educational work has traditionally focused on three realms of life - personal finances, health, and human relations ­ three values they see as the fundamental building blocks of daily life."

2. Awakening Earth
(San Anselmo, CA)
Awakening Earth is designed by Duane Elgin, author of Voluntary Simplicity.  The site provides reports, articles, books, links, and other resources that promote a sustainable and creative future for the environment and economy.  Elgin’s work was initially organized in 1995 as the Millennium Project to develop research on the emergence of a new culture and consciousness in the world.

3. Seeds of Simplicity
(Glendale, CA)
"Seeds of Simplicity is a national, nonprofit membership organization working to help mainstream and symbolize voluntary simplicity as an authentic social and environmental issue. It is a Los Angeles-based program of the Center for Religion, Ethics & Social Policy at Cornell University. All resources are available without charge to members and include diverse educational materials on free-thinking for children and adults, the consultation/coordination services of The Simplicity Circles Project, and the opportunity to preserve a changing ‘living legacy’ for present and future generations in the Living Legacies Archive that is part of this web site."

4. Northwest Earth Institute
(Portland, OR)
"The Northwest Earth Institute develops earth-centered education programs for neighborhoods, workplaces, homes, schools, and centers of faith. These programs are organized around three key principles:

• an ecocentric view of the earth, reflected in the principles of deep ecology
• the practice of simplicity to enrich life & to reduce personal impact on the earth
• a dedication to knowing and protecting the unique place where you live

5. EarthSave
(Seattle, WA)
"EarthSave promotes food choices that are healthy for people and for the planet. They educate, inspire and empower people to shift toward a plant-based diet and to take compassionate action for all life on Earth."  Their programs include: EarthDay dinners, Vegetarian Management classes, Community Potlucks, Sustainability workshops, etc.

6. The Simple Living Network, Inc.
 (Trout Lake, WA)
"Providing tools and examples for those who are serious about learning to live a more conscious, simple, healthy and restorative lifestyle. We are a small, home based, cottage business.  Our only purpose is to introduce you to the lifestyle alternative of ‘simple living’ (aka "voluntary simplicity)."

7. Northwest Jewish Environmental Project
(Seattle, WA)
"NWJEP's mission is to educate the Pacific Northwest Jewish community about Jewish perspectives on the environment and to develop and encourage behavior that will lead to action. NWJEP is developing new vehicles for involvement strengthening Jewish identity and community while facilitating a Jewish contribution to the healing of society's relationship to creation. NWJEP's strategy is designed to achieve this by working with existing Jewish institutions, environmental agencies and organizations; by creating unique educational programming targeted to specific groups that will develop and educate children, teenagers, adults and seniors, and foster a greater understanding of environmental issues."

8. Presbyterians for Restoring Creation
(Louisville, KY)
"PRS is a faith community dedicated to environmental wholeness with social justice seeking to be a prophetic voice for substantive change in the church and in the world. They focus on: reclaiming awareness of the spiritual connection with the whole of God's creation, grieving over the suffering of Creation, actively repenting for humanity’s role in causing that suffering, engaging in study, reflection, and dialogue to deepen our understanding of the issues, confronting the fundamental idolatries of church and culture, consciously resisting the values and norms of consumer-based economic systems, which emphasize growth at all costs, promoting values based on compassion, frugality, accountability, participation, and sufficiency for all, celebrating the power of community, and utilizing the gifts, skills, and experience of the people."

9. Earth Ministry
(Seattle, WA)
"Earth Ministry's mission is to engage individuals and congregations in knowing God more fully through deepening relationships with all of God's creation.  We believe that through this experience our personal lives and our culture will be transformed.  These transformations include simplified living, environmental stewardship, justice for all creation and a worldview which sees creation as a revelation of God.  Together these lead to a rediscovery of the vitality of the Christian faith."

10. Web of Creation
(Chicago, IL)
"The Web of Creation was established to foster the movement for personal and social transformation to a just and sustainable world-from religious perspectives.  To that end, the information at this site will:
- connect you with ideas, resources and strategies for doing eco-justice
- inform, inspire, encourage, educate you about eco-justice
- support you in your efforts to live, work and pray in ways that promote eco-justice
We define eco-justice as any effort that promotes ecological integrity with social justice as a central focus of religious understanding."

11. Alternatives for Simple Living
"Alternatives is a non-profit organization that equips people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly. Started in 1973 as a protest against the commercialization of Christmas, our focus is on encouraging celebrations that reflect conscientious ways of living.  Throughout our 25-year history, we have led the movement to live more simply and faithfully. We have developed many different resources, organized an annual Christmas Campaign ("Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?"), held the Best and Worst Christmas Gift Contest, led numerous workshops, and reached countless people with the message of simple, responsible living."

12. FI Associates
"Financial Integrity Associates (FIA) helps people create more personally fulfilling and ecologically sustainable lives by applying the program detailed in Your Money Or Your Life to develop strategies for more effective use of their life energy and financial resources."

Fair Trade

• International Fair Trade Labeling/Monitoring/Advocacy Organizations

2. International Federation of Alternative Trade
(Bicester, Britain)
"IFAT is the International Federation for Alternative Trade, a global network of 154 Fair Trade organizations in 49 countries, which works to improve the livelihoods and well-being of disadvantaged people in developing countries and to change the unfair structures of international trade. IFAT is a federation of producers and "alternative" trading organizations (ATOs)." IFAT brings together buyers and managers of ATO’s in order to eliminate the middlemen and to "create an "alternative" way of doing business that is beneficial and fair."
*Web page includes list of international members with their web pages (including those belonging to producers themselves). I am partial to IFAT as I am an associate "scholarly" member of the organization.

3. NEWS!
(Utretcht, Netherlands)
"NEWS! is the Network of European World Shops. We are a grass-roots movement with approximately 100.000 volunteers working in over 2.500 World Shops in Europe. World Shops sell fairly traded products from small-scale producers in developing countries. Unlike regular trade, Fair Trade puts people before profit."

• National Fair Trade Labeling/Monitoring/Advocacy Organizations

2. TransFair USA
(Oakland, CA)
TransFair USA was created in 1996 as the legal structure for officially launching the Fair Trade coffee initiative. Concurrently in Europe, TransFair International morphed into a larger umbrella organization named FLO (Fair Trade Labeling Organizations). TransFair USA is a non-profit monitoring organization which certifies that participating traders are following fair trade guidelines. Coffee is its first product line. "Coffee roasters and retailers that comply with these guidelines are allowed to use the TransFair seal on their products, signaling to consumers that the product is fairly-traded. In return, roasters pay TransFair a seal licensing fee. TransFair's four basic guidelines for fair trade coffee are:
--Coffee importers agree to purchase from the small farmers included in the International Fair Trade Coffee Register. And the farmers must meet various criteria including democratic organization; organic farming strategies; and commitment to a high quality product.
--Farmers are guaranteed a minimum "fair trade price" of $1.26/pound FOB for their coffee. If world price rises above this floor price, farmers will be paid a small ($0.05/pound) premium above market price.
--Coffee importers provide a certain amount of credit to farmers against future sales, helping farmers stay out of debt to local coffee "coyotes" or middlemen, who charge usurious rates of interest.
--Importers and roasters agree to develop direct, long-term trade relationships with producer groups, thereby cutting out middlemen and bringing greater commercial stability to an extremely unstable market."

3. TransFair Austria

4. Max Havelaar Belgium

5. TransFair Germany

6. Transfair Canada

7. Fairtrade Foundation
(London, Great Britain)

8. Max Havelaar Fonden Denmark

9. Fairtrade Mark Ireland

10. Max Havelaar Norge (Oslo, Norway)

11. TransFair Japan

12. Reilun kaupan edistämisyhdistys ry.
(Helsinki, Finland)

13. www.raettvist.se
(Stockholm, Sweden)

14. Stichting Max Havelaar
(Utrecht, The Netherlands)

15. Max Havelaar Stiftung
(Basel, Switzerland)

• Fair Trade Distributors/Retailers

2. The Fair Trade Federation
(Kirksville, MO)
The Fair Trade Federation (FTF) is an association of fair trade wholesalers, retailers, and producers whose members are committed to providing fair wages and good employment opportunities to economically disadvantaged artisans and farmers worldwide. FTF directly links low-income producers with consumer markets and educates consumers about the importance of purchasing fairly traded products which support living wages and safe and healthy conditions for workers in the developing world. FTF also acts as a clearinghouse for information on fair trade and provides resources and networking opportunities for its members.

3. Worlds Apart Trading Company
(Homewood, AL)
Worlds Apart Trading Company features gifts and ornamental pieces from more than 30 countries. They feature: Collectibles, Home Furnishings, Masks, Kitchen/Tableware, Clothing/Accessories, Plant/Garden, Holiday/Seasonal, Jewelry, Baskets/Boxes, Musical Instruments, Toys/Games

4. CASA BONAMPAK
(San Francisco, CA)
Specializes in regional textiles and folkart from Chiapas, Mexico.
CASA BONAMPAK is dedicated to fair trade with artisans from Latinamerica. "By promoting socially responsible gifts we can provide the consumer with an alternative to products made in sweatshops and maquiladoras. The vision is work directly with artisans in different communities from Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guatemala and to provide continuos employment at a fair wage in the traditional arts. Through the fair trade products we can also provide political and cultural education about the on going Zapatista crisis in Chiapas, Mexico. Casa Bonampak is a member of the Fair Trade Federation."
Check out the Zapatista Cyber-Mercado’s selection of zapatista dolls, ski masks and toy trucks!

5. www.vom.com/baksheesh
(Sonoma, CA)

6. www.mountcastle.com
(St.Petersburg, FL)

7. www.geckotraders.com
(Arlington, VA)

8. Ten Thousand Villages
(Akron, PA and New Hamburg, ON)
Various retail outlets throughout United States and Canada
"Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. Ten Thousand Villages works with artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed. This income helps pay for food, education, health care and housing. Thousands of volunteers in Canada and the United States work with Ten Thousand Villages in their home communities." Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the relief and development agency of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in North America. Ten Thousand Villages has been working around the world since 1946.

9. Equal Exchange
(Canton, MA)
"Equal Exchange was founded in 1986 to create a new approach to trade, one that includes informed consumers, honest and fair trade relationships and cooperative principles. As a worker-owned co-op, we have accomplished this by offering consumers fairly traded gourmet coffee direct from small-scale farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia."
*You can buy their coffee at Sevenanda! Try the Guatemalan—my favorite!

10. Alternativ Handel
(Goteborg, Sweden)
Alternativ Handel is a non-profit organization which imports and sells merchandise such as handicrafts and household articles from the Third World, both in its own store and through other retailers. Their aims for Third World Trade are: (1) Avoid middlemen who are out to make a profit (2) Support organizations that strive to achieve a structure which is beneficial to members and employees, such as cooperatives (3) Support social development projects that involve the most socially disadvantaged (4) Process and package the goods in the country of origin (5) Support the strengthening of the producers rights in international as well as local markets (6) Trade with goods which are produced using ecologically sound methods.

11. Alternativa
(Barcelona, Catalonia)
Alternativa 3 aims to establish relationships with producer groups in Latin America, Africa and Asia in order to provide development to disadvantaged communities and expand this idea in Spain by opening shops and informing the general public and other organizations

12. Bridgehead
(Ottawa, Ontario)
"Bridgehead provides marginalized communities of artisans and farmers around the world with a multi-faceted marketing system for their crafts and food produce. Bridgehead works to advance public awareness of ethical business practices as a powerful development tool and aims to link Canadians with small farmers and artisans in the developing world through Fair Trade."

• Fair Trade Producers/Associations/Cooperatives

2. Central Interregional de Artesanos del Peru
(Lima, Peru)
CIAP is a non-profit organization based in Lima which was founded in 1992 as a self-managed democratic association of Peruvian artisan producer groups. By working together these groups are able to consolidate orders and minimize the costs of their commercial operations such as quality control and packaging while assuring the highest quality.

3. International Federation for Alternative Trade
Through IFAT, producers meet with buyers and managers of Fair Trade marketing organizations as friends and partners, in a spirit of mutual trust. IFAT's objectives are twofold: to improve the livelihood and well being of disadvantaged people in developing countries, and to change unfair structures of international trade. It achieves this by linking and promoting the organizations that practice Fair Trade.

• Producer Support Organizations

2. Asociacion Latinoamericana de Pequenos Caficultores (Frente Solidario)
(Costa Rica)
Asociacion Latinoamericana de Pequenos Caficultores (Frente Solidario) is a network of distinct rural organizations interested in the promotion, development, strengthening and unity of small-scale coffee producers in Latin America. It was formed in 1991 as an initiative of the Max Havelaar Foundation (Holland), the Friedrich Elbert Foundation (Germany) and ECDS (Holland). Frente Solidario’s objectives include: promoting the organization of small scale coffee producers so that their conditions may improve socially and economically, Striving for the production and commercialisation of coffee both directly and indirectly, encouraging the exchange of technical and scientific knowledge about the processing of coffee between its members, encouraging more co-operation and integration between coffee producers and consumers, introducing the use of organic farming as an alternative means of cultivating coffee, and fully incorporating women in all tasks related to the coffee organizations.

Labor Standards and Sweatshops

1. Co-op America
(Washington, D.C.)
Co-op America, a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, "provides the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to address today's social and environmental problems." The organization’s philosophy can be summed up as follows: "every time you make a purchase, the money that leaves your hands goes to work. Too often, this means your dollars exploit workers here and abroad, abandon hard-hit communities and dump toxins into our environment. But it doesn't have to be this way. Your purchases can support businesses that create jobs, care about their communities, engage in fair trade and protect our environment. Co-op America helps you find those businesses and provides technical assistance to help those companies succeed and grow." Coop America runs a Green Business Program which starts and supports small socially and environmentally responsible businesses; a Consumer Education and Empowerment Program which informs people about hot to vote with their dollars to effect change; a Corporate Responsibility Program which encourages corporations to become socially and environmentally responsible; and a Sustainable Living Program which provides information about practical measures people can take to meet their personal, community, and work lives more meaningful and sustainable. Their sweatshop campaign focuses on the following:full public disclosure, the right to organize and the creation of a living wage. The organization provides resources for individuals concerned with unfair labor practices and sweatshop production, including the Green Business Pages, a listing of responsible businesses. They also regularly publish news about their recent actions and campaigns along with listings of other related organizations and campaigns.

2. The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Program
(Arlington, VA)
The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs' mission is to improve the quality of life for migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families by providing advocacy for the member organizations that serve them. The organization works with member groups to address the needs of current and future farmworkers, to prevent them from being relegated to a life of cyclical poverty and, as an occupational group, being legally discriminated against. They are calling upon the U.S. sign and ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Family; the Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at the Local Level; the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 97, Migration for Employment Convention, 1949; and the International Labor Organization Convention No. 143, Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions).AFOP serves farmworkers and their families and the organizations that serve them by providing information, education, support, advocacy and representation at the national level.

3. Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
(New York, NY)
CISPES is a grassroots organization dedicated to supporting the Salvadoran people's struggle for self-determination and social and economic justice. They believe that capitalism is a "fundamentally unjust, oppressive and ecologically unsustainable economic system." Their three basic goals are: first, to end U.S. economic, political and military intervention in El Salvador, Central America, the Caribbean, and all of the Americas. In the current context they work to end U.S.-imposed global economic policies that devastate local cultures and economies, specifically in El Salvador. Second, to give political and material support to the grassroots movement in El Salvador for self-determination, economicdemocracy and social justice. They support labor, women's, gay and lesbian and other grassroots organizing and stand in solidarity with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

4. Corporate Watch
(San Francisco, CA)
Corpwatch is an online magazine published by Transnational Resource and Action Center. The organization works to build global links for corporate accountability, human rights, and environmental justice. It provides information on individual corporation’s labor rights records and includes extensive press releases and reports on corporate responsibility, sweatshops, and labor rights.

5. Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC)
(Hong Kong)
AMRC is an independent non-government organization (NGO) which focuses on Asian labour concerns. The center's main goal is to support democratic and independent labour movements in Asia. In order to achieve this goal, AMRC upholds the principles of workers' empowerment and gender consciousness, and follows a participatory framework. They believe that the following conditions will help workers to become truly empowered: first, workers must have access to information, tools and skills, as well as opportunities for the exchange of experiences and ideas. Second, men and women must work together as equal partners. Third, the international solidarity of workers must be strengthened. And fourth, workers' perspectives and alternatives must be articulated and translated into action, including education and training programmes, campaigns and other organising strategies. AMRC provides services to grassroots NGOs concerned with women workers, labor issues and development; activists within the labor movement; labor organizations specializing in areas such as education and training, health and safety and labor rights; NGOs in developed countries and international organizations concerned with labor rights and labor standards in Asia; organizations requesting information on specific countries or industries for the purpose of raising public awareness of labor issues in Asia; and NGOs seeking North-South or South-South collaboration on research projects, monitoring, information exchange and the analysis and sharing of experiences of organizing.

6. International Labor Rights Fund
(Washington D.C.)
The ILRF is a nonprofit action and advocacy organization which uses new and creative means to encourage enforcement of international labor rights. They believe internationally recognized rights are violated in every part of the globe. "The ILRF pursues legal and administrative actions on behalf of working people, creates innovative programs and enforcement mechanisms to protect workers' rights, and advocates for better protections for workers through our publications, testimony before national and international hearings, and speeches to academic, religious, and human rights groups. The ILRF focuses on linking trade expansion to enforcement of internationally recognized worker rights in order to more broadly distribute the benefits of increased global trade and economic integration and to strengthen democratic polities and civil societies."

7. The Maquila Solidarity Network
(Toronto, ON)
The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) is a Canadian network promoting solidarity with groups in Mexico, Central America, and Asia organizing in maquiladora factories and export processing zones to improve conditions and win a living wage. They argue, "in a global economy it is essential that groups in the North and South work together for employment with dignity, fair wages and working conditions, and healthy workplaces and communities. The Maquila Solidarity Network Builds Solidarity through a corporate campaign, government lobbying, popular education, international links and exposing the "Labour Behind the Label."
"Since 1996, the MSN has supported garment and toy workers' efforts to improve working conditions in Canada and internationally. Recent Stop Sweatshop campaigns have targeted the Gap, Woolworth, Nike, Mattel and Wal-Mart. In education workshops, they expose the "global sweatshop" behind everyday consumer goods. They offer support to local groups organizing against sweatshop abuses. They believe retailers must be accountable for the conditions under which their products are made."

8. The National Interfaith Community for Worker Justice
(Chicago, IL)
The National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice is a network of people of faith that calls upon religious values in order to educate, organize and mobilize the religious community in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers.

9. Peace through Interamerican Community Action
(Bangor, ME)
Founders of the first United States grassroots community campaign for "clean clothes" or clothing produced without sweatshop labor. Currently engaged in lobbying the Maine State legislature for a state law to help workers around the world gain better working conditions.

10. Sweatshop Watch
(Los Angeles, CA)
Sweatshop Watch is a coalition of labor, community, civil rights, immigrant rights, women's, religious and student organizations, and individuals committed to eliminating the exploitation that occurs in sweatshops. Sweatshop Watch serves low wage workers, with a focus on garment workers in California, as well as nationally and globally. They believe that workers should be earning a living wage in a safe and decent working environment. They believe that those who benefit the most from the exploitation of sweatshop workers must be held accountable. As a central part of their mission, they remember that the workers who labor in sweatshops are their driving force. The organization’s decisions, projects, and organizing efforts are informed by their voices, their needs, and their life experiences.

11. The Maquila Health and Safety Support Network
The "Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network" is a volunteer network of over 400 occupational health and safety professionals who have placed their names on a resource list to provide information, technical assistance and on-site instruction regarding workplace hazards in the over 3,800 "maquiladora" (foreign-owned assembly) plants along the U.S.-Mexico border. Network members, including industrial hygienists, occupational physicians and nurses, and health educators among others, are donating their time and expertise to create safer and healthier working conditions for the over 950,000 maquiladora workers employed by primarily U.S.-owned transnational corporations along Mexico's northern border from Matamoros to Tijuana. "The Support Network is not designed to generate, nor is it intended to create, business opportunities for private consultants or other for-profit enterprises. On the contrary, Network participants will be donating their time and knowledge pro bono to border area workers and professional associations."

12. Students Against Sweatshops - Canada
Students Against Sweatshops-Canada (SAS-C) formed following a student networking conference held at the University of Toronto in February 1999. The network links student activists across Canada in their fight to end sweatshop abuses.

13. United Students Against Sweatshops
National coalition of student anti-sweatshop groups, formed the summer of 1998. Provides information on how to launch anti-sweatshop campaigns on college campuses.

14. The National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS)
(New York, NY)
NMASS is a grassroots effort by and for working people and youth of all backgrounds and communities. It is dedicated to fighting for the 40-hour workweek and an eight-hour day. They believe everyone should be entitled to the right to a 40-hour workweek at a living wage whether they are underemployed, unemployed, or overworked. NMASS is committed to building a new national labor movement aimed at fundamentally transforming the sweatshop system according to the needs and human rights of working people.

15. Clean Clothes Campaign
(Netherlands)
The Clean Clothes Campaign (or the "CCC" as it is popularly called) aims to improve working conditions in the garment and sportswaer industry. The CCC started in the Netherlands in 1990. At that time stores in the Netherlands were not taking any responsibility for the working conditions under which the clothes they sold were made. But we have come a long way since then. Now there are Clean Clothes Campaigns in ten Western European countries. And now it is more difficult to find retailers here who denounce this responsibility.
 

Certification

1. Green-e Certification
(San Francisco)
Managed by the Center for Resource Solutions, the Green-e program certifies renewable electricity sources. The Green-e logo is placed on products made by manufacturers that voluntarily partake in the center's certification program. The logo certifies that at least 50% of the energy is from a renewable source, that non-renewable parts of the electricity have lower emissions than traditional electricity sources, and that the product meets other criteria. The Center for Resource Solutions provides information on renewable energy providers and educates consumers on how to switch to green power.

"With the restructuring of the electricity industry, we have the ability to choose where our electricity comes from. Although you can't tell when you turn on your lights, there are huge differences among energy sources that produce electricity. The traditional power supply comes mainly from polluting fossil fuels and nuclear power, whereas renewables, such as wind and solar power, have dramatically lower pollution emissions and cause much less environmental damage. Electricity choice means you can choose to protect the environment when you buy electricity."

2. Gruener Punkt (The Green Dot)
(Germany, EU)
This is perhaps the best known, and most widely used licensing/certification mark in Europe.  The Green Dot, which was initiated in 1990 and has been expanding rapidly ever since, is a private initiative that takes over product responsibility in the sales packaging sector. This private company, "Duales System Deutschland AG" employs a "Dual System"  in dealing with packaging and waste.  The term "dual" stands for a second system operating parallel to municipal waste collection and management.  Moving beyond disposal, the company is now also concerned with recovery.

"Duales System Deutschland AG is a privately operated public limited company that is not traded on the stock exchange. It is organised as a non-profit company on account of the purpose for which it was set up.  The objective of the company is to prevent and recycle sales packaging."