The Hindu Business Line : How Germany makes good its waste

The cellar in my house was becoming a dump-yard for all kinds of old and ‘kaput’ electronic appliances and, last weekend, I drove to the communal collection centre to dispose of them. As of March 2006 all electric appliances are marked with a “crossed-out waste bin on wheels” symbol. This reminds you that the appliance must not be thrown into your household waste but must be returned to the communal collection sites located conveniently in every Ger man city.

E-Waste

The hi-tech boom has brought with it a new type of waste — electrical waste, a category that barely existed 20 years ago. Electrical waste is a massive issue in Europe — and an innovative solution is being though of. It’s all about EPR — Extended Producer Responsibility. Making those that manufacture the goods responsible for the eventual disposal of the product at the end of its life. This also encourages producers innovate and ensures that they manufacture goods with less toxic ingredients.

Electrical appliances consist of roughly 1,000 different substances; these include valuable raw materials, such as copper and aluminium, but also dangerous substances, such as cadmium, lead, mercury and flame-retardants containing poly-bromates.

The new “Elektro-G” law since 2006 stipulates that the use of these substances is strictly limited in the manufacturing of new appliances. Also, that such perilous wastes are recycled or safely disposed of. Fluorescent tubes contain mercury. Regular TV sets and screens contain cathode ray tubes with leaded funnel glass and metallic fluorescent agents. About 90 per cent of all fridges dumped today contain substances harmful to the ozone layer. Old toasters still contain a considerable amount of asbestos, and old irons or hot water boilers may be equipped with switches containing mercury.

And what are Indians doing with e-waste? Sending them to landfills, most of the time. Almost five kilos of lead may be found in a computer monitor. Producers and importers of electrical and electronic equipment must be held responsible to pay for the safe recycling, or disposal, of such hazardous waste.

Polluter Pays

In 1991 Germany became the first large European country to make the recycling of household waste compulsory, in part by forcing companies to take back packaging once a product is consumed. Since then, elaborate recycling systems have evolved and, for ordinary Germans, separating rubbish into re-usable plastics, glass, paper, compost and other materials has become a matter of routine and national pride.

The philosophy behind the Packaging Ordinance, for instance, is based on what is known in Germany as the “polluter-pays” principle. Recycling is so much a way of life that it is usually only foreign visitors, including visiting Indians, who are amazed about German kitchens with two or three different rubbish bins and about its supermarkets with large machines for recycling glass bottles.

In turn, Germans on holiday in India are often flabbergasted that vegetable vendors and grocery stores still give away plastic shopping bags free of charge. In Germany, these cost ten euro cents and most shoppers fill their own cloth bags at the checkout. Yes, Germany is undeniably the world leader on cutting CO{-2} emissions associated with the burning of fossil fuels.

Why Packaging?

Packaging was targeted in Germany because it accounts for about 50 per cent of the volume and 30 per cent of the weight of municipal solid waste, making it one of the largest sources of municipal waste in the country.

Of the packaging sent for disposal, about 70 per cent is landfilled and 30 per cent incinerated. The capacity of these disposal facilities is fast running out.

Germany’s experiment has captured the imagination of recycling advocates throughout the world. Making manufacturers responsible for taking back packaging has brought about some of the effects environmentalists wanted.

A walk up the toiletry aisle of Aldi, the well-known German grocery chain, reveals the impact. Gone are just about all toothpaste boxes.

Instead, bare tubes stand on their caps in permanent display holders. No more sturdy, brightly coloured plastic (high-density polyethylene) bottles in the detergent aisle. Instead, cardboard sleeves wrap very thin plastic containers of liquid detergent.

For consumer-products manufacturers, some of these changes mean real savings on materials.

Millions of tonnes of cardboard per year just because it has eliminated the outer carton around products. An almost 50 per cent cut in raw material consumption. And refillable cartons, resulting in a 90 per cent reduction in packaging.

Waste Separation

Starting July 1, 2007, we have a rainbow of different colour-coded garbage containers in our home courtyard in Cologne, Germany. A yellow bin for packaging (old milk cartons, etc,), a blue bin for paper and cardboard, a brown “Bio” bin designed for un-cooked bio-degradable food and plant waste. Finally, there is a black bin for the rest of the rubbish. For glass, there are bins separated into ones for clear, brown and green glass.

People are obliged under German law to take any “hazardous waste”, such as batteries or chemicals, to a recycling centre. Unused medicines should be returned to the local ‘apotheke’ or pharmacy. If you fail to do this, it could be considered an “administrative offence” liable for prosecution.

Where all this rubbish finally ends up is also complicated. According to a new law which came into force on the first of June 2005, the left-over rubbish must not simply be consigned to a rubbish dump, but subjected to a pre-treatment process.

During our first visit to Munich, Germany in 1985, my wife and I were looking around to toss out some leftovers from a hastily gulped down raclette meal.

Used to Indian towns, cities and public places and the complete lack of ‘garbage sense’, we were at first just happy to find a garbage bin. But, then, the confusion started. It was not one trash can. It was a four-in-one, colour-coded brainteaser. Each opening was reserved for one kind of waste. And each was labelled in four different languages!

A German onlooker, amused by our bewilderment, explained that our mustard sauce-smeared paper tray was “general waste”. Not paper!

(The author, a former Europe Director, CII, lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback may be sent to mohan.murti@t-online.de)

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