International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

In addition to incineration capacity increasing, the capacity of MBT treatments has
also increased. In some respects, the pace of this development has been more rapid
than that for incineration. The principle legislation allowing the development of the
technology was not finalised until 2001.
A report by the ASA states that there are currently 46 MBT plants operated in
Germany. These plants pre-treat approximately 25 % of the total municipal solid
waste (approximately 6 million tonnes). The pre-treatment processes generate an
estimated 3 million tonnes of a high calorific material with a biogenic content of some
50 %. 1005
53.8 Social and Distributional Consequences
Of course, the disposal ban concerning landfills could not be realized free of any
costs. The increase in costs for private households was a key argument against the
demanding requirements of the TaSi and its consequences. However, in many cities
and counties, it was demonstrated that, in practice, the realization of intelligent waste
management concepts (waste separation, local waste charges with incentives for
waste prevention etc.) delivered positive results. This means, perhaps surprisingly,
that cost savings could be achieved in the overall waste management costs in a given
region. So, even if the disposal costs per tonne increased as a result of the measure,
the costs per household did not necessarily increase in the same way because of the
possibility of generating a dynamic incentive to reduce waste quantities, and increase
recycling rates. This highlights the important role of higher disposal costs incentivising
municipalities to introduce measures such as pay by use to avoid the rising costs of
disposal. 1006
In the county Darmstadt-Dieburg for instance (see Annex 9.0) reductions of the waste
costs for the households are currently under serious consideration of the authorities
due to the successful overall waste management system.
53.9 Complementary Policies
A landfill tax policy could deliver similar results to a landfill ban depending upon the
rate of the tax per tonne of disposed waste. Under German market conditions, a
landfill tax of the order € 100 per tonne of waste would be necessary to achieve
similar results to those of the landfill ban. Depending on the region, and for instance
1005 ASA (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Stoffspezifische Abfallbehandlung) (2008) The Road to MBT Technology,
December 2008; see also T. Grundmann and M. Balhar (2008) Status quo and Perspectives of
Mechnaical Biological Waste Treatment (MBT) in Germany, February 2009.
1006 Interestingly, in Landkreis Schweinfurt, the ban on landfilling of untreated waste was cited as a
major reason for enhancing the sophistication, and strengthening the incentives within, a charging
scheme incentivising household waste reduction. The authority anticipated having to pay higher costs
for disposal of waste to incineration, and in anticipation, sought to incentivise more segregation and
waste reduction activities (see Eunomia (2003), Waste Collection: To Charge or Not to Charge? A Final
report to IWM (EB), http://www.eunomia.co.uk/Charging%20report.pdf.).
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