General Statistics on Waste Management

Waste prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery, disposal: this is what is referred to as waste hierarchy, the foundation of waste management in Germany. In the past, waste management was merely about waste disposal, but it has since been recognised that waste is a valuable resource which can be used effectively to conserve natural resources.

The German government aims to achieve almost complete high-quality recovery, of municipal waste at least, by 2020. The target for other types of waste is a recycling and energetic recovery quota of 65 percent. This is an overview of the general statistics of waste management.