In 2005 the emission of climate-affecting gases from annually discarded household waste will be approx. 30 million tonnes CO2 equivalent less than in 1990. The saving effect regarding fossil fuels more than tripled in a good ten years (1990-2001) due to increased energy recovery and recycling of wastes. These are the results of the IFEU Heidelberg study.

Implementing sustainable development in Germany is one of the Federal government‘‘s key tasks. Increasing resource efficiency and climate protection play a crucial role in this context. The waste management sector - an economic sector with over 240,000 employees and an annual turnover of approx. 50 billion euros, which handles almost 400 million tonnes of waste every year - is also called on to play its part.

With the 1994 Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act, other specific product-, substance- and installation-based legal provisions and voluntary agreements with sectors of industry, policy-making has restructured waste management in Germany over the past 15 years.

The IFEU Heidelberg has carried out a study on behalf of the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) and Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) to determine the contribution this has made or is making to sustainable development.