Ever since Germany implemented the amendment of the European Waste Framework Directive into national law (amendment of the Waste Management and Product Recycling Act) in 2012, there has been increased activity in line with the 5 step waste hierarchy for the reduction of waste for thermal treatment. In Hamburg, SRH has been able to reduce the annual residual household waste by approximately 100,000 tons in 2013 compared to 2007. A major recycling campaign, a scaling up of the separate collection of waste, an increasing environmental awareness by the general public, economic influences and marginal activity in the trade and industry of product and packaging design have all played a role in the decline in the thermal treatment of waste.

Due to long planning periods for the capital intensive facilities, e.g., incineration plants, this development was unforeseeable and now must be determined on a case by case basis whether facilities, due to a lack of waste, should be closed or continue operation by acquiring additional waste. 

Annually, SRH has approximately 1 million tons/a a waste treatment capacity at its disposal in own or contracted incineration plants. Since 1996, when the Waste Management and Product Recycling Act came into effect SRH has, as needed, acquired supplementary industrial waste for additional revenues throughout Germany in order to stabilize the household waste fees. These measures have proven to be effective and as such are a preferred measure over the closure of plants.

Depending on the economic situation nationally and the given waste policy in the EU over the past years, waste outside of Germany has also been disposed of in Hamburg. In 2007, household waste from Naples (Italy) and a few years before that bone meal (risk material) from Portugal and Ireland were also thermally treated in Hamburg with the help and support of the local government and within the framework of the “EU assistance measures”. One side benefit of these activities was that the Hamburg plants received a lot of recognition through the press coverage as well as positive certifications through the relevant EU departments.

The following is a short overview of SRH’s experience in handling household waste from England. Stadtreinigung Hamburg (SRH) cooperated with an English company and a service provider from Denmark in order to import 30,000 tons of Baled RDF within a timeframe of about a year. The company from England supplied sorted waste (municipal and commercial), the Danish partner provided contract coordination, administration and logistic services and SRH treated the waste in its incineration plant in Hamburg Stellingen.

It is not possible to further recycle the sorted RDF so that, in England, it would have been landfilled because there are not enough incineration plants in England, yet. (New incineration plants are being planned.) In Germany, landfilling has been prohibited for years because of its negative effects on the environment. Emissions of methane are 21 times more harmful than the emissions of CO2 that the same amount of waste causes when treated in a waste-to-energy plant. Waste is thermally recovered to produce environment-friendly electric energy, process steam and heat. Even byproducts such as slags are re-used. Emissions produced by a modern recovery facility are far below legal limits.

The sorted waste was baled in England and then brought to Hamburg on truck trailers (via ferry to Cuxhaven). Because England imports more goods than it exports, there is a lot of otherwise unused capacity (trucks without cargo) on the way back from England to mainland Europe so that these transports did not generate extra traffic. SRH devised a very effective way of unloading the trailers by means of a mobile container ramp and unpacking the bales with a self-made bale knife.

In February 2013, Hamburg authority BSU (Environmental Department) was notified about the waste transfer. In the preliminary stage of the authorization process it was necessary, as was the case in the past, to convince the local government of the value and purpose of the business. Both in terms of the economy and the environment it was necessary to prevent the disposal of foreign waste in Hamburg at the expense of its citizens. The local government became convinced of the merits of deal after contemplating the economic as well as the environmental aspects. Similarly, EU-wide waste transfers in the past helped to gain both political and public support.

Between May 2013 and March 2014, 26,911 tons of English Baled RDF was thermally treated in Hamburg. Stadtreinigung Hamburg invoiced the supplier every month for the tonnage of Baled RDF delivered and accepted (less any demurrage claimed, and plus any costs for the disposal of non-compliant RDF). The service provider invoiced the supplier for the service fee. Within 30 days, the supplier paid by bank transfer to the designated bank accounts. It also paid for the transport. The price for the waste treatment was comparable to the conditions for domestic waste volumes on the spot market.

The partnership was successful and cooperation between the three partners was good.