According to a current Civey survey, a large majority of Germans take part in separating waste. However, a comparison with reality shows that while most Germans like to separate waste, they are obviously wrong for the most part. This has serious implications for climate protection.
According to a representative Civey survey for the environmental and recycling company ALBA, only 3.8 percent of Germans state that they do not separate their waste at all. Around 85 percent throw their used glass into the container and use the yellow bin or bag. Over 90 percent give their waste paper for recycling. Older people take it a little more carefully than younger people, and waste is sorted more conscientiously in the country than in the city. In mid-July, Civey surveyed over 2,500 Germans on the subject of waste separation.
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The numbers give hope. The overwhelming majority of Germans want to conserve resources, save energy and thus protect the climate. But the apparently good result is deceptive. 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 makes up the largest proportion of this at almost forty percent. In fact, in the Civey survey, over 35 percent of those surveyed stated that they did not separate their organic waste, but rather put it in the residual waste bin. Since 2015, the Circular Economy Act has obligated everyone to separate waste – tenants and homeowners alike.
But it is not just the carelessly thrown away organic waste that clouds the result of the Civey survey: those who separate waste must also separate properly: in the yellow bin alone, “mis-disposal” of up to 30 percent are not uncommon. Anyone who carelessly throws their waste into the black bin or separates it incorrectly feeds it to the country’s climate-damaging waste incineration plants. 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. So Germany still has some catching up to do when it comes to waste separation and recycling. Too much is wasted. And the potential of residual waste bins is enormous.
Also read: Guest article by Eric Schweitzer – Habeck wants to smash the billion dollar business with garbage – will he stand firm?
1. More information and education: A minority of the population does not separate waste. But the potential is still considerable, especially for organic waste. There is a lot of catching up to do in terms of persuasion on the part of business, local authorities and politics. And the majority of people who separate or want to separate waste need repeated instructions about what goes in which bin. There is enough information with tips on how to separate waste properly. Obviously, people need to be brought closer to these.
2. Increase the price for climate-damaging waste incineration: Last week, the cabinet approved the proposal by Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck to finally include waste incineration plants in German emissions trading: Anyone who burns waste should therefore pay for their CO2 emissions from 2023. Rubbish does not belong in the fire but in recycling. Currently, the waste-to-energy plants even get money for incinerating the residual waste and being able to sell electricity and heat from it at high prices. This practice should come to an end as soon as possible. Because the municipal utilities, which are usually the operators of the waste-to-energy plants, have so little interest in waste separation and recycling.
3. Germany needs more organic waste bins: Since 2015, cities and municipalities in Germany have been obliged under the Circular Economy Act to provide their citizens with a system for separating organic waste, i.e. kitchen and garden waste. Environmental protection organizations such as NABU calculated in 2020 that in 56 of 402 districts and urban districts, i.e. in almost every seventh district, there is no nationwide organic bin. In places where organic waste bins are mandatory, the per capita collection volume is increasing rapidly. Here, the federal states must urgently push for the implementation of the law. No joke: Biowaste is now of geostrategic importance. Because organic waste is fermented into biogas and can thus replace a large part of Russian natural gas.
4. Financial incentives for waste separation: The better the waste is separated, the smaller the black or gray residual waste bin can be. And the lower the garbage fees could be. This not only benefits the climate and the environment, but also the wallets of homeowners and tenants. In return, the federal government must, as suggested in Robert Habeck’s Easter package, promote biomethane production more instead of keeping it small. As I said: In view of the Russian aggression, organic waste in particular is of geostrategic importance now and in the future.
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.
