Waste volumes in Germany down slightly

Waste has often been a hotly debated topic for years, even though waste disposal is relatively well organized in Germany - at least according to appearances. The volume of waste has actually fallen overall recently, but not equally in all areas.

In the Corona year 2020, 414.0 million tons of waste were disposed of in Germany. This was 0.6 percent or 2.5 million metric tons less than in 2019. The recycling rate remained unchanged: 70.1 percent of all waste was recycled, while a further 11.6 percent was recovered as energy, i.e. incinerated in waste-to-energy plants, for example, and used to generate electricity and heat.

The drop in production and sales in the Corona year contributed to the decline in waste originating from production and trade. There was also a sharp decline in "construction and demolition" waste. The trends in these two types of waste led to the overall decline in waste generation in 2020.

In contrast, "municipal waste," which is waste from private households or comparable establishments such as doctors' offices and law firms, increased by 0.7 percent or plus 0.35 million metric tons.

The construction industry is one of the largest producers of waste in Europe and is responsible for around ten percent of CO2 emissions. The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) has examined this topic in detail: The average life of a building in Europe is just under 40 years, after which it is demolished. This practice results in a large amount of construction and demolition waste, which accounts for 25-30 percent of all waste in Europe.

The major European project "Reincarnate," funded by the EU's Horizon Europe research and innovation program, aims to change that. The idea of the circular economy is to be anchored in the European construction industry and extend the life cycle of buildings, construction products and materials through innovative solutions. In the long term, this would reduce construction waste by 80 percent and the CO2 footprint of the construction sector by 70 percent.

(Photo: © EKM Central Saxony, Pixabay)