Waste separation protects resources and the climate

Most natural resources, such as crude oil, are limited and can only be replaced to a certain extent by regeneratives. When it is a question of conserving resources, recycling plays a major role as a source of raw materials – and its importance is growing steadily.

The indispensable precondition for ecologically sound, high-quality recycling in line with the precepts of the German Packaging Ordinance is stringent waste separation. This is why nowadays we have dual disposal systems for separate collection of recyclable packaging. While the local authorities are still in charge of the collection and disposal of residual waste, trade and industry are responsible for the recycling of used packaging. Licensees of the Green Dot system transfer this responsibility to Duales System Deutschland GmbH.

Personal initiative is what counts

Waste separation starts in private households. Used sales packaging is collected separately from the residual waste and forwarded for recycling by specialised waste management companies.

It’s worth the effort: with the energy that was saved in 2003 alone by recycling sales packages, Germany’s bakers could bake two rolls a day for more than three whole years for each of the country’s approximately 83 million inhabitants.

In 2004 so much energy was saved that each of the almost 38 million households in Germany would have been able to wash its laundry 200 times a year in the washing machine or use the tumble-dryer 54 times. And in 2005, the energy saved by recycling the amount of packaging collected by only eight German consumers would have been enough to operate the floodlighting system of a world-class football stadium for the duration of a 90-minute game.

Sustainable benefit for the environment

Waste separation and recycling are key components of sustainable management. In its annual resources balance, DSD GmbH documents that packaging recycling not only conserves resources but also saves energy and helps to protect the climate.

In 2005, some 71 billion megajoules of primary energy were saved in total. In addition, the emission of 1.3 million tons of climate-endangering greenhouse gases was prevented. This means that the additional environmental impact caused by the FIFA World Cup 2006 will be offset 13 times over.

The A and O of recycling is the correct separation of waste. There are five different waste fractions: Packaging waste made of glass and paper, so-called lightweight packaging manufactured from plastic, aluminium, tinplate and composite materials, residual waste and organic waste. Separate collection containers are available for each of these five fractions. However, only three of them are marked with the Green Dot.

The waste paper collection is only for paper and cardboard – and nothing else. The rules for the bottle bank are: Screw off the lids, sort the empty bottles and jars by colour and throw them into the appropriate container for green, brown or clear glass. Blue glass goes in the green glass container. The yellow bag and yellow bin are exclusively for packaging manufactured from plastic, aluminium, tinplate and composites. Never put any residual waste into either the yellow bag or yellow bin.

If you are not sure whether to put an empty pack into the recyclable waste collection or not, click on one of the three symbols for the different fractions. Alternatively you can search by keyword. The select box will help you here with a wide range of search terms – from aluminium foil to yoghurt tub.

If in doubt: It's better to put one item too many into the residual waste bin rather than a wrong item into the recyclable waste collection! read more...

At first glance, it seems as if all glass packaging separated according to color is tipped together into the disposal vehicles. However, all trucks that collect glass sorted according to color, have inside them separate chambers that are separately filled.

While broken glass as a raw material allows relatively high discoloration tolerances for the recovery of green glass, for brown glass you are only allowed a low foreign portion and for white glass only 0.5 per cent of green or brown portions. About half of the packaging glass manufactured, e.g. bottles and glass, preserves, are colorless. Careful presorting is therefore of particular importance.

CD’s do not belong in the yellow bag or yellow bin, because they are not packaging and their manufacturers do not pay licence fees to DSD GmbH. However, they are better off in a recycling system than in the residual waste, because they are made of valuable plastic.

There are collecting bins for CD’s and CD-ROM’s in many computer shops. Many recycling and resource centers also take CD’s. Inform yourself at your recycling or resource centre. You will find the address in the waste calendar of your local council.

Blue glass belongs in the green glass container. Separation according to color is of particular importance for the recycling of glass. White glass will not bear any other colors, and brown glass no more than eight per cent. Green glass will just about bear 15 per cent of differently colored glass for it to be able to be recycled with color fidelity.

As a mono-material and when separated according to color, glass can be melted down as often as required without any quality loss.

The distribution of yellow bags is the responsibility of the relevant local waste disposal companies. The type and manner of distribution of yellow bags varies from region to region. The waste adviser responsible for you at your town council or local council will be glad to provide you with information.

The reason is the financing of the waste disposal: To date, there is a private sector collection and disposal system financed via licensing fees only for packaging materials.

Those responsible have been giving this point consideration for quite some time. This is why in Leipzig, since September 2005, a pilot project with the title “Gelbe Tonne plus” (Yellow Bin plus) - scheduled for several years - is operated for a joint disposal of Green Dot materials and non-packaging items. As part of this pilot project, the joint collection, sorting and recycling of packaging and other products of the same material are to be examined as to whether they can make a contribution to an increase in economic and ecological efficiency. The results will be pathfinding for the further development of the waste disposal policy and practice in Germany.