Brussels, 17/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has granted approval with obligations to a system for the collection and recycling of packaging waste put into place by the Austrian company Altstoffrecycling Austria AG (ARA). It has previously authorised similar systems in other Member States. Under a directive from 1994, producers and distributors of packaged products were obliged to take back and recycle, free of charge, used sales packaging from consumers. In Austria, a global "Green Dot" collection system was set up, managed by ARA, currently the only company providing this service. ARA gives licences for the use of the "Green Dot" logo, charging a fee to manufacturers and distributors, and is supported by a network of specialised recycling companies which organise the process. These then instruct independent disposal companies, which carry out the actual collecting and sorting. ARA and the specialised recycling companies ARGEV Verpackungsverwertungs GmbH and Altpapier-Recycling Organisationsgesellschaft (ARO) asked the Commission for an exemption to a series of agreements concluded with the collection companies, which has now been granted. In this way, a single collection and sorting company will be assigned a service contract, for a minimum of three years, for each region and each category of material. This time will allow recycling companies to recoup the investments made to set up the infrastructure needed. However, after five years at most, ARGEV and ARO will have to shake up the competition by awarding new contracts, via a transparent and objective procedure. Lastly, the Commission attached obligations to its decision. ARGEV may not prevent recycling companies from concluding contracts with competitors of the ARA system of the sharing of containers and other arrangements for the collection and sorting of household packaging waste, which will guarantee access to the disposal infrastructure, which will help competition to develop.