Economics Minister Robert Habeck now wants to set clear limits on the waste incineration business. For more climate protection and the conservation of resources. But the garbage incinerators don’t want to put up with that. Does the traffic light stay put?
Germany has long been considered the world champion in waste separation and recycling. However, according to a study by the Federal Environment Agency, two thirds of the contents of the residual waste bin are waste that could actually be collected and recycled separately. Organic waste accounts for the largest share at almost forty percent.
The result is sobering. Because anyone who carelessly throws their waste into the black bin is feeding the climate-damaging waste incineration plants in the country with it. And there are far too many of them. What is burned is irretrievably lost.
And the more waste that is incinerated, the less pressure there is to separate, sort and recycle it. And the higher the cost of our society for energy and the production of new raw materials.
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Ultimately, a certain proportion of residual waste will always have to be incinerated as long as there is no perfect circular economy. My company also has to unsort and burn non-recyclable waste.
But what is too much is too much: Around 100 power plants in Germany are currently burning our residual waste. Above all, the municipal utilities burn waste like crazy. But Chinese investors have also entered the lucrative business in Germany with a good 20 systems.
Around 3000 megawatts of thermal power and well over 1500 megawatts of electrical power convert the contents of the black bins into dirty heat and electricity every day – a total output of more than four nuclear power plants.
What ends up in the black bin is no longer sorted or filtered, but goes directly to the incinerator. Unseparated paper, carelessly discarded glass and also valuable organic waste that could be used to ferment for biomethane and as a substitute for Russian natural gas – an unrestrained waste of energy and resources that we can no longer afford, at least since Putin’s attack on Ukraine.
Waste incineration in Germany releases around 20 million tons of CO2 every year, the sources of which are largely of fossil origin. This has a massive impact on our climate and leads to an irreversible loss of raw materials.
But the operators of these waste-to-energy plants earn twice as much by burning our resources and have been subsidized by the state for decades for their environmentally and climate-damaging behavior.
And it works like this:
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That has to end now. And the traffic light coalition now seriously wants to reduce this waste of resources. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck has announced that waste incineration plants will be included in national emissions trading. The cabinet should already decide on July 13.
However, it would be years before a European regulation comes into force. Habeck wants to take the shorter route via the German Fuel Emissions Trading Act (BEHG), which the Merkel government launched in 2020.
dr Eric Schweitzer is the owner and CEO of the Berlin ALBA Group, one of the leading environmental service providers and suppliers of raw materials in Europe with an annual turnover of around 1.3 billion euros and 5400 employees. ALBA is also the name sponsor of the current German basketball champions. Schweitzer was President of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) from 2013 to 2021 and has been Honorary President of the DIHK and the IHK Berlin since 2021.
In the BEHG, all companies that bring fossil raw materials such as petrol, heating oil or coal onto the German market are already subject to a CO2 surcharge. The emission of one ton of CO2 currently costs 30 euros, next year 35 euros, 2024 45 and 2025 55 euros.
Then the price of the emission certificates should form on the market. The income flows into the energy and climate fund and serves to relieve the burden on citizens and new climate protection projects. It was already 7.2 billion euros in 2021.
But there is resistance to the traffic light project. While the Habeck Ministry is tinkering with the draft law, municipal utilities and waste incinerators are already taking a political stance. After all, it’s not just about climate protection and wasting resources, but about many billions of euros. It will be interesting to see how steadfast the Green Economics Minister and the coalition factions will remain.
However, one thing is certain: Germany still has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to waste separation. And anyone who thoughtlessly dumps everything in the black bin damages the environment and climate twice over.
