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Waste Policy of Alliance 90/The Greens in the
German Parliament
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• Dr. Michael Weltzin
• Senior advisor for waste policy to the Greens
• Working fields Waste policy, chemistry, water
  policy and renewable resources
• Doctor in groundwater remediation technology
• Diploma in biology at the Technical University
  Aachen, Germany
• Practical experience in biological waste
  treatment

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Content

• Who we are and where we have started
• Waste treatment in former times
• Landfills as a problem
• Where we are today
• Benefits for the environment and the economy
• Waste as a resource
• Recycling and limits of recycling
• What does this mean for the future?
• Bioplastics as part of the solution
• Future concept 2020
• Experiences with high tech alternatives
• Gasification, Pyrolysis and MBA
• Summary

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Who we are

• Alliance 90 / The Greens are the party of peace,
  social fairness, protection of the environment
  and a sustainable development.
• We are a constituent part of the German
  Parliament for 25 years now. National election
  results up to 8,6 .
• From 1998 2005 Alliance 90 / the Greens were
  part of the government and Mr. Jürgen Trittin was
  the first green Federal Minister for
  environment.
• Green accomplishments were phasing out of
  nuclear power, passing the Renewable Energy Act
  and implementation of CO2 emission trading.

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What is waste?
332 Mio t/a in 2005in Germany

• Waste from human settlements is not the biggest
  amount, but because of its inhomogeneous
  consistence it is responsible for a big part of
  the problem.

source stat. Bundesamt 2007
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Where start

• The waste problem was a central point of green
  environmental policy - right from the beginning.
• Most important problem in the past
• a lot of waste but very low standards for
  handling.
• The situation that time
• waste avoidance was a unknown thing
• even hazardous waste was filled in unsecured
  dumps
• incineration was if practised at all - known as
  an dioxin slingshot

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Landfillig as a shift of problems
CH4
water
treatment
waste
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Landfillig as a shift of problems

• Landfill sites are black boxes, with unknown
  biological and chemical processes.
• They need intensive care for generations,
  leaching water has to be treated for years.
• Permanent danger of leaks and rents, with heavy
  consequences for groundwater and soil. Such
  problems are usually more or less not reparable.
• Methane emission from landfilligis responsible
  for a significant part of the global warming
  problem(up to 2,6 in 1990 in Germany).

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Leaching, example Mechernich Germany 1996
barrier plastic layer of 2.5 millimeter
Leaching of heavy metals! waste and even plastic
bags
source magazine Der Spiegel 38/96
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Treat it!

• Landfillig is not a solution it is just a
  problem shift to next generations.
• That means
• Do not landfill untreated waste
• Go sustainable end landfilling as soon as
  possible completely
• in other words make the work of archeologist
  from tomorrow as difficult as possible

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Content

• Who we are and where we start
• Waste treatment in the early days
• Landfills and problems
• Where we are today
• Benefits for environment and economy
• Waste is a resource
• Recycling and recycling limits
• What does this mean for tomorrow?
• Bioplastics as part of the solution
• Future concept 2020
• Experiences with high tech alternatives
• Gasification, Pyrolysis and MBA
• Summary

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Where we are today

• The commitment of the environmental groups of the
  early days was successful
• today waste avoidance has became a central policy
  target,
• high readiness in the society for separating and
  collecting of waste,
• high quotas on recycling,
• multi way packaging is promoted,
• strong legal emission-limits for waste
  incineration,
• no more untreated waste in landfill sites since
  June 2005.

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Benefit for the climate
Data from German Environmental Agency, Dessau
2006
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Benefit for the economy and the environment

• Waste treatment
• is active protection of groundwater and soil,
• is climate protection, in Germany 4.5 reduction
  of greenhouse gas emissions since 1990,
• is a job generator, in Germany 250.000 employees
  in waste economy in 2006,
• business with a turnover of 50 Bill. uro a year
  in Germany,
• is a lead market for environmental technologies
  and technology transfer.

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Content

• Who we are and where we start
• Waste treatment in the early days
• Landfills and problems
• Where we are today
• Benefits for environment and economy
• Waste is a resource
• Recycling and recycling limits
• What does this mean for tomorrow?
• Bioplastics as part of the solution
• Future concept 2020
• Experiences with high tech alternatives
• Gasification, Pyrolysis and MBA
• Summary

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Waste is a resource
source IFEU, Heidelberg, study municipal waste
2006
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Very well working recycling systems

• are recycling of glass, paper and metals

Recycling quotas (Germany 2005) glass 80
paper 80 metals 90
source IFEU, Heidelberg, study municipal waste
2006
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The limits in recycling plastics!

• They are the problem child of recycling. In
  Germany only 50 of plastic waste is recovered
  20 recycling, waste into energy 30,
• reasons
• the smell of waste lasts for ever
• strong technical limits of using plastic as
  recycling material
• during capture and processing up to 50 sorting
  rests!
• sooner or later even recycling materials become a
  not recyclable waste!

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What learned after centuries

• Waste avoidance and recycling quotas are not the
  solution, they are just a part of it,
• even recycling products become waste after use,
• although many members of the green party started
  their carrier in action groups against
  incineration plants, incineration with low
  emission level and energy recovery is very well
  accepted today.
• Landfillig is not suitable for the future. To end
  depositing of waste in landfill sites has to be a
  primary target!

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Content

• Who we are and where we start
• Waste treatment in the early days
• Landfills and problems
• Where we are today
• Benefits for environment and economy
• Waste is a resource
• Recycling and recycling limits
• What does this mean for tomorrow?
• Bioplastics as part of the solution
• Future concept 2020
• Experiences with high tech alternatives
• Gasification, Pyrolysis and MBA
• Summary

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What does this mean for tomorrow ?

• Promotion of an integrated product design the
  behavior of a product as waste has to become part
  of the product development
• Closing the loop for raw materials recycling
  instead of downcycling
• Avoidance of waste by implementation of a tax for
  primary raw materials
• Further efficiency increase for waste
  incineration more production of electricity and
  heat
• Products have to become free of harmful
  substances
• Stay away from oil, use of renewable resources
  for production (e.g. use of bioplastics)

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Bioplastics as part of the solution

• Biodegradable Bioplastics

• Advantages
• renewable raw material,
• ideal for packaging of food,
• can substitute mineral oil,
• compostable,
• waste avoidance in landscapes,
• waste to energy is climate neutral!

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Bioplastics as part of the solution II

• non biodegradable bioplastics

• Advantages
• renewable raw material,
• can substitute mineral oil in many products,
• if not recyclable, waste into energy is climate
  neutral!

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Future concept for 2020 zero waste

• we are campaigning to end the disposal of waste
  from human settlements on landfill sites by 2020
  completely
• That means waste have to be sorted full
  automatically and the valuable substances have to
  recovered.
• Sorting residues that are left over should be
  used to generate energy in waste incineration
  plants operated with very high standards.

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Link to MVR Technology
a System like MVR fits into Green future concept
to reach the 2020 target

• very low emissions,
• high efficiency in recovering of heat and
  electricity,
• use of different by-products by producing acid
  and gypsum
• use of ashes e.g. in the construction industry
• no landfilling, only 2 of the input is left over
  and have to be deposited in the subsoil

source MVR-Hamburg
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Content

• Who we are and where we start
• Waste treatment in the early days
• Landfills and problems
• Where we are today
• Benefits for environment and economy
• Waste is a resource
• Recycling and recycling limits
• What does this mean for tomorrow?
• Bioplastics as part of the solution
• Future concept 2020
• Experiences with high tech alternatives
• Gasification, Pyrolysis and MBA
• Summary

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Experiences with high tech alternatives

• Gasification and Pyrolysis as tops of the flops
• Process itself causes high loss of energy,
  ecological questionable and economical not
  profitable, examples
• Babcock- pyrolysis capacity only 26.000 t/a in
  the 80s
• Schwel-Brenn-Verfahren pilot plant never worked
  regular
• Thermoselect end in 2004, loss of 400 Mill.
• PKA process since 2007 off duty
• black pump 2004 sold for one uro, since 2007
  using coal
• This technologies are not reliable!

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Experiences with MBA as incineration alternative

• Mechanical Biological Treatments
• separation of waste stream in a recycling chain
  (metal, wood), a solid fuel strain (paper,
  plastics) and the biological treatment of the
  almost organic rest with a following landfilling.
• Campaigned by the Greens in the early days, but
  there are still technical problems, no market
  for solid fuel, so landfilling is still
  necessary
• This technology is not reliable too!

Explosion in MBA in Göttingen 2006
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Consequences of missing reliability

• Definitely the worst case for our environment!
• examples Napoli, Italy and not working MBT
  Technology

source WDR, German Television, DUH 2007
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Summary

• There are still challenges to meet!
• A sustainable handling of waste is a central
  element of environmental and climate protection.
• Closing the loop fore raw materials and
  increasing of Recycling
• Ending of landfilling as soon as possible.
• Therefore using the best available (!)
  incineration technology.
• Vision ennoble waste incineration to a renewable
  power plant by no more fossil and hazardous input
  

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Thank you for your attention.