Ministry of Economic Affairs Baden-Württemberg |
::Introduction:: ::Companies:: |
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Stephan Meißner, Paper Associations of Baden-Württemberg, Gernsbach
In a highly developed industrial society, amounts of waste result from industrial production and the consumption of goods. The prevention and processing of these waste materials have to be optimised in terms of economy as well as ecology. Working frameworks have been drawn up, e.g. by the Rio Conference, Agenda 2000 and EU legislation.
This particular directive lays down quantitative targets for the recycling of packaging waste but leaves it to the EU member countries to introduce the measures needed to achieve these targets. In Germany the EU directive is implemented by the Recycling Management and Waste Act with its corresponding regulations, e.g. the Packaging Regulation.
Baden-Württemberg's innovative environmental technology in this sector answers the challenges facing a modern waste management system. Systems for the collection, sorting and recording of waste flow in the purest possible grades were developed and put into practical service years ago. They are successful, for example, in removing raw materials from the waste and returning them to the production process. Today the trend is to avoid as far as possible having to dispose of waste materials. Instead the priority lies on preventing waste in the first place and returning useful materials to the economic cycle. As such the onus in waste disposal is shifting largely from the responsibility of the state to the responsibility of the individual manufacturer, user and consumer.
Extensive restrictive legislation implemented by the state legislator has demanded more of industry in Baden-Württemberg than in any other German state. Particularly in their licensing procedures, local authorities lay down the standards which have to be met by a production enterprise. They also specify the values for operating waste recycling and disposal systems. Operators of the type of industrial production installation requiring official approval have long been governed by the residual waste prevention and recycling requirements of the German Immission Protection Act, which has since been updated in connection with the Recycling Management and Waste Act.
The greatest potential for preventing waste lies in suitable product design, production methods, in-plant recycling and integrated intermedial environmental protection. Here the legal framework rests on two pillars: Optimised conservation of resources on the one hand and material and formal requirements for preventing the ejection of waste from the economic cycle on the other hand. Duties are allocated - within the framework of limits and targets set down by the Recycling Management and Waste Act - on the principle of making the polluter pay. This is leading accordingly to the privatisation of waste management in Germany's companies.
Conserving resources is one goal, minimizing the impact on soil, water and air another. The latter applies also to the technological implementation of environmentally compatible waste recycling and disposal systems. In this case the criteria are already being based on the Technical Regulation for Residential Waste due to come into force in Germany in the year 2005. This administrative regulation requires, for example, that only inert waste be stored on dumps. Apart from maximizing the prevention and recycling of waste thus should also result in the construction of more energy recycling and disposal installations. Innovations in the construction of such power stations and refuse incinerators are aimed at achieving the lowest possible pollution.
Thus while industry fulfils its responsibility for product and production it still observes the principle of conservation. In its development and deployment, environmental technology is always adapted to the conditions of the individual case. The many years of experience already accumulated in this connection by Baden-Württemberg's manufacturers and plant operators can now be used internationally for the benefit of global environmental protection.
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