RESULTS IN BRIEF Many stakeholders from politics, business and civil society are disappointed with the German Packaging Act. They feel it makes a comparatively small contribution to a circular economy. This study provides explanations for the disappointment: • Policy-making became entangled in disputes between proponents of a private and a public system for waste collection. Stakeholder fears of potential radical changes led to a "lock-in" (a blockade). • These fears allowed only incremental changes in the 2019 Packaging Act. • The incremental changes could not resolve existing conflicts. Necessary disputes therefore shift to the current implementation Based on the findings, we propose possible courses of action: • To create a shift to a circular economy, we propose a dialogue using backcasting methods to explicitly address fears and overcome lock-in.