Indicator: Recycling municipal waste | Umweltbundesamt

At a glance

• The recycling rate for municipal waste rose from 56 % in 2002 to 67.7 % in 2022.
• The target set by the Federal Government of increasing the recycling percentage for municipal waste to 65 % by 2020 has therefore been achieved.
• However, there is still a need for action for individual subgroups of municipal waste.

Environmental importance

Municipal wastes cover a broad range of different types of waste, such as domestic waste, collection of segregated paper, glass and organic waste and electrical appliances. Although these only account for around 14.2 % (net) of the total waste generated annually, they are very heterogeneous and resources relevant compared to other types of waste. They are therefore representative of the challenges faced by waste management overall.

Substances worth recovering are increasingly collected separately and usually recycled. This applies particularly to waste paper, glass, packaging and organic wastes. This saves raw materials, decreases the use of primary energy and therefore reduces carbon dioxide emissions. In the past it was customary to deposit municipal wastes without further processing. This has been forbidden since 2005. Methane emissions from landfill sites have therefore declined significantly.

Assessing the development

Recycling of municipal waste has been at a relatively high level in Germany for a long time. In 2002 it was 56 %. Over 60 % of municipal waste has been recycled in Germany since 2005.

The 2008 EU Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC) has so far set the follwing recycling target: Each country must achieve a recycling rate of 50 % for certain materials by 2020. The German Federal Government has increased this requirement in the Circular Economy Act: 65 % of all municipal waste must be recycled.

The amended Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2018/851/EC) lays down the following targets for the recycling of municipal waste (including preparation for re-use) taking into account a new output-based calculation method: 55 % by 2025, 60 % by 2030 and 65 % by 2035. The European targets are currently being translated into national law of the Member States.

A clear rise in recycling rates has been observed since 2002. The recycling rate for municipal waste reached 65 % for the first time in 2012 and, after falling in 2013, exceeded this value again since 2014. The efforts to expand material recycling of municipal waste will be continued in order to raise this level further.

Methodology

The recycling rate was published annually in the waste balance sheet of the Federal Statistical Office until the 2020 reporting year (Federal Statistical Office 2022, in German only). From the 2020 reporting year, the previous format of the waste balance sheet was replaced by the Statistical Report - Waste Balance Sheet (Federal Statistical Office 2024, in German only). The waste statistics are based on a number of different surveys, which are combined into the waste balance. Further details on the waste statistics surveys can be found in the respective quality reports (in German only). In 2002, there were major shifts between the categories due to the changeover to the European Waste Catalogue. For this reason, the indicator is only presented from 2002 onwards.

More detailed information: 'Verwertungsquoten der wichtigsten Abfallarten' (in German only).