News
07 Jul 2020, 13:25
David Reay

Recycling body attacks lack of government help in stimulus package

Die Welt

The head of Germany’s waste management association BDE has criticised the German government for ignoring recycling in its massive post-coronavirus stimulus package. In an interview with Die Welt, Peter Kurth, head of the federation, said ministers had missed a great opportunity to reduce emissions, meet climate targets and cut waste. "They are spending 130 billion euros and are not even considering the potential of the recycling industry at all. This is more than disappointing,” he said. Kurth said the stimulus package was a prime moment to introduce incentives such as a recycling quota, or invest in recycling technologies. For example, if the current rate of plastics reuse could be doubled to 30 percent, he calculates that 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide can be saved. "If Germany is serious about the [EU] Green Deal, recycling management must become the supporting pillar of the economic system. Otherwise the climate targets cannot be achieved,” he added.

Germany was hailed as a world leader in recycling in the 1990s but its crown has slipped somewhat since then. While EU figures show it recycled more than 60 percent of plastic packaging in 1995, this fell to less than 49 percent in 2018. Plastics production and incineration is predicted to consume 10-13 percent of the global carbon budget by 2050.

All texts created by the Clean Energy Wire are available under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0)” . They can be copied, shared and made publicly accessible by users so long as they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
« previous news next news »

Ask CLEW

Researching a story? Drop CLEW a line or give us a call for background material and contacts.

Get support

+49 30 62858 497

Journalism for the energy transition

Get our Newsletter
Join our Network
Find an interviewee