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Kempten, Oberallgäu and Lindau, Germany

IMPACTPaperRec / Facts & Figures  / Case studies / Kempten, Oberallgäu and Lindau, Germany
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GENERAL DATA

NATIONAL AND REGIONAL SYSTEM

Legislation & targets

According to national legislation, separate collection of paper, metal, plastic and glass is obligatory – as of 1 January 2015 also
for biowaste. The preparation for reuse and recycling target of municipal waste is set at 65 % for 2020 (by weight). Households are obliged to hand over their household waste to public sector garbage collection companies, unless the waste is used on the private property (for composting, for example). According to national (KrWG) and regional law (BayAG), counties and independent towns are responsible for the waste arising on their territory1.

EPR system

The EPR system for packaging exists in Germany since 1990. Currently there are ten collective EPR schemes active in Germany. The collection is managed by the waste management companies/associations. The fees and costs as well as the revenues then get split according to their market share on the German market.

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WASTE COLLECTION SCHEME

The counties of Oberallgäu and Lindau together with the city of Kempten consolidated to a common public association for waste collection, “Zweckverband für Abfallwirtschaft Kempten” (ZAK). ZAK is a public body with a 100% subsidiary (ZAK GmbH – private) which handles the market-oriented activities such as the operation of the incineration plant. ZAK has set up a collection system on its whole territory that combines door-to-door collection with bring bank systems and recycling yards. ZAK is therefore the organisation responsible for waste and resource management (WRM) for the three administrative units Kempten, Oberallgäu & Lindau instead of the municipalities individually. ZAK has.
The waste collection on the territory of ZAK is split between two companies, Dorr (Kempten and Oberallgäu) and Fischer (Lindau). The DtD collection uses waste trucks with an interior press, BBs get emptied by waste trucks with lifting cranes and containers on RYs by “container to go” waste trucks. Five trucks with interior press are designated for the collection of PfR from DtD, each truck has a capacity of 8 to 9 tons. In addition to this public collection system, a special permission allows not-for-profit associations, NGOs, or sports clubs to collect PfR on their own behalf and by their own means. These collection types are called “volunteer collection” in the following. This system collects selectively graphic paper in bundles or boxes directly from households, via private cars, transporters, tractors, etc. These are local collections and usually just cover one village or town. Frequency varies, depending on the village/town. By experience volunteer collection takes place 2-6 times per year.Separate collection of PfR has a long tradition on this territory: Volunteers collection since a long time, paper containers (BB) in 1980s, and recycling yards in 1990s. The paper bin (door-to-door collection of paper & board) was introduced in 2008. Paper bins are provided to the households free of charge and the next bring bank is within walking distance (one per 500 to 600 inhabitants). For selective collection of graphic paper citizens can make use of the recycling yards (one for 7500 to 8000 inhabitants) and the volunteer collection. 60% of the households have a paper bin and those provide 40% of the collected paper.Small shops and businesses that produce waste of similar nature and quantity as households can be included in the municipal system. The upper limit is three bins per type and three times the household fee. All other shops and businesses have direct contracts with a collector. Schools and administrations are also included in the municipal system. Often they have their own containers for paper and cardboard.

Service to the citizens:litres/inhabitants

751 l/cap/year (DtD system only)

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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION

An annual magazine (ZAK Journal) focusing on waste separation, resource management and news on the collection system is distributed to every household together with the municipalities’ bulletins and brochures on different aspects explaining the local waste and resource management system. One brochure is specifically directed at tourists in holiday flats. All these brochures are created and distributed by ZAK and are also available for download. The individual municipalities participating in the system are responsible for distributing the information material and for providing basic information on waste and resource management to the citizens.

This is complemented by an in-house information centre at Zak premises, regular tours to the incineration plant with 4000-5000 annual visitors, tutorials for teachers, learning DVDs, a mobile App and an information booth on two annual regional fairs.

21 citizens of the three municipalities have responded to the questionnaire. All respondents feel well or very well informed about how to sort their waste in general and all but one for sorting paper and cardboard. The main sources of information for waste sorting in general and sorting of PfR in particular are the websites of the collector and of the municipality, the information provided on the containers, Leaflets that are distributed to the mailboxes, waste consultants, and the local newspaper.

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EVOLUTION PAPER & CARBOARD WASTE COLLECTED

In the years 2000 until 2007, bring banks were the most commonly used system for PfR collection, with around 60% of all PfR collected. Roughly 35 % were collected via recycling yards and further 4-5 % in the volunteer collection. Around 12% of all paper & cardboard was discharged off in the residual waste.

After the introduction of the door-to-door collection of paper for recycling, the new system quickly gained importance and became the second most used system in the course of the next two years. This led to a parallel decrease of usage of bring banks and recycling yards.

The Paper for Recycling included in the residual waste bin also started to decrease after the introduction of the new system in 2008: In 2008, around 9 % of paper & cardboard was included in the residual waste; in 2011 only 5.5% and by now the amount of paper & cardboard in residual waste is around 4 %.

The total of paper & cardboard in the system seems to be increasing in the past 10 years. This is probably in line with the general increase of cardboard packaging due to change of consumption habits (increase in online shopping, for example).

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PAPER AND CARDBOARD WASTE TREATMENT

Paper and cardboard that is collected for recycling is all delivered for recycling to paper mills via local transfer stations. The quality of separately collected paper and cardboard in this territory is very good. The contamination is at 0.5 % of non-paper components and at 2,5 – 4,5% of unwanted papers for graphic paper (grade 1.11.00) when entering the paper mill (after first sorting at the transfer station). The moisture content is 8,5% on average. Packaging paper and mixed PfR has a contamination of 2,0 – 3,0% non-paper components     when entering the sorting plant.    

Out of all Paper for recycling in the municipal waste, roughly 92 % are actually recycled at the end of the process.     

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COSTS AND REVENUE, RESOURCES

The fees for households are calculated as a combination of fixed and variable fee, thus applying a PAYT system. The basic yearly fee is combined with a flexible fee depending on the chosen bin size. The flexible fee increases linearly. An individual citizen, when choosing the smallest size of bins would pay a total annual fee of 103.20 € (36 € fixed fee and 67.20 € variable fee). The fixed fee is per housing unit and thus the same for individuals and households with more individuals. The average total fee for households is 122 €.
The cost coverage for the whole WM system is 19.91 %.

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STAKEHOLDER SATISFACTION

 

 

Almost all respondents to the citizens questionnaire (21 in total) are satisfied with the waste management services provided in Kempten, Oberallgäu and Lindau, just two give a neutral answer. Most respondents furthermore agree that the system is transparent, practical, effective, reliable, and that it provides a high quality service and good service for money. Just each one respondent disagrees with some of these attributes, and two disagree with the statement that the system provides good service for money.

When asked what type of measures could simply their sorting efforts, the main measures mentioned were
•    Collection bins that are comfortable for use (size, shape, cleanliness) (mentioned by 9)
•    Collection bins in closer proximity (mentioned by 6)
•    DtD collection (mentioned by 4)
•    More space at home (mentioned by 3)

In addition to the citizens, one respondent from a paper mill and one employee of the WM department at the municipality answered to the targeted questionnaires. The key message of the paper mill was that the percentage of packaging paper is sometimes too high. Consequently he would wish for higher quantities of graphic paper and therefore suggests as an improvement to improve sorting, combine it with quality checks on-site, and to intensify selective collection of graphic paper.

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MAIN PROBLEMS/CHALLENGES

More information:

Andreas Faul
PROPAKMA
andreas.faul@propakma.com
+49 (0)7142-37522-22    

Harald Hiltensberger
DORR
harald.hiltensberger@dorr.de

Karl-Heinz Lumer
ZAK
karl-heinz.lumer@zak-kempten.de
daniel.garciajimenez@cadiz.es
+34 956 205001

1 Relevant legislation: National Waste Management Act: Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz, KrWG, and Bavarian Waste Management Act: Bayerisches Abfallwirtschaftsgesetz, BayAbfG.

2 Paper and cardboard in municipal waste (kg/inh/y) is based on estimation. 

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