The fight against waste(fulness)

UBA conference on taking real steps to prevent waste

Global population growth and the rising consumption of raw materials are increasing the pressure on the demand for natural resources. Despite the progress made in life cycle management, waste quantities in Germany are not sinking stably. More and more product diversity, ever shorter innovation cycles, in particular in technical devices, and frequent changes in fashion trends are bringing forth products that have shorter and shorter service lives and consumers opting to buy new products more quickly. “Urgent action is necessary to implement effective measures to avoid waste. We must also improve the separate collection of recyclable waste in the recycling bin”, explained the Federal Environment Agency’s President Maria Krautzberger. The Federal Environment Agency is using the European Year against Waste as an occasion to hold a workshop on the topic of waste avoidance on 22 May 2014. The guide on household waste entitled Abfälle im Haushalt – Vermeiden, Trennen, Verwerten (in German) is going online concurrently. It contains useful advice on waste avoidance and the environmentally friendly use of waste.
No. 27/2014

The aim of the UBA’s specialist conference on waste avoidance (Wider die Verschwendung – konkrete Schritte zur Abfallvermeidung) in Berlin is to enable a detailed exchange between different groups of stakeholders on the topic of waste avoidance. The conference will address current issues and the reduction of waste in product design in particular. Other topics of the conference include best practices in the field and the identification and elimination of obstacles to waste avoidance. Three working groups will have the opportunity to engage in an intensive exchange on the prospects and limits of selected measures.

Working Group 1 will look at the “design” and “production” stages in the product life cycle and consider the waste prevention aspects of the two product properties “technical life” and “reparability” in particular.

Working Group 2 will have an in-depth discussion on the appropriate collection and functional recycling of end-of-life products as a key prerequisite to their successful reuse.

Working Group 3 will focus on second-hand trade and discuss how the demand for used goods can be increased and what conditions must be put into place in the sector to ensure its successful establishment.

Umweltbundesamt Headquarters

Wörlitzer Platz 1
06844 Dessau-Roßlau
Germany

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 waste prevention  resource conservation