German state of Baden-Württemberg updates waste management plan

The German association BVSE (Federal Association for Secondary Raw Materials and Disposal) reports that the state government of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, has updated its waste management plan for municipal waste.

The plan includes an inventory of the waste management structures for municipal solid waste in the country, predicts the development of waste volumes in the next 10 years and provides guidelines for further improvement of waste management.

Environment Minister Franz saucer reiterated the state's goal of promoting the collection and recycling of waste as well as sustainable materials management and resource efficiency.

“Wastes are for our business locations an important resource. Our goal is to improve the recovery of energy and materials from waste continuously, thus increasing the already high quality of the Baden-Württemberg waste economy. We not only make a good environmental policy, but also good economic policy for our domestic companies.”

Saucer explained that future waste management measures will increasingly focus on conserving natural resources and protecting the climate, the environment and the economy. Another overriding principle will be to avoid waste wherever possible.

The Waste Management Plan 2015 calls six priority areas: biowaste, green waste, recyclable materials, electronic waste, sewage sludge and construction waste.

In these fields, the state government plans to increase volumes, optimize energy recovery and recycling and improve the recovery of raw materials, BVSE reports.

As to whether new waste management facilities are used in Baden-Württemberg, the Waste Management Plan contains only minor changes to the earlier plans. By 2020, no additional incinerators additional landfills are required. Only for the recycling of biowaste and green waste are new installations needed to any significant extent.

The next update of the waste management plan is as scheduled for 2021.

The Waste Management Plan is available on the website of the Ministry of the Environment at http://um.baden-wuerttemberg.de.