Waste Prevention –

Municipal Practice in Düsseldorf

Mark Lindert, City of Düsseldorf, Environmental Office

Contact

Dr. Mark Lindert

City of Düsseldorf, Environmental Office
Brinckmannstraße 7
40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Telephone: +49 211 8921059
Facsimile: +49 211 8929451
E-mail: mark.lindert@duesseldorf.de

Executive Summary

In the last few decades, the City of Düsseldorf, capital of the German federal state of North Rhine-
Westphalia, has gained valuable experience in a variety of different areas of waste prevention. The
city has also developed a number of guidelines for administrative and operational work.

Purchasing standards are determined by a series of central operational guidelines to ensure the
procurement of long-life, low-pollutant products and materials. In addition, Düsseldorf’s
administration actively pursues a policy of selling vehicles and furniture that have been scheduled
for replacement.

Over the past two decades, Düsseldorf has worked in close cooperation with various charitable
institutions in the area of reconditioning used furniture, kitchen equipment and consumer
electronics.

On its website, the city promotes a variety of opportunities to sell or swap used objects on a private
basis.

The local waste management statutes and complementary operational guidelines for the municipal
authorities stipulate the use of returnable dishes and cups on municipal premises and in municipal
buildings.

Naturally, the total amount of waste prevented by the different projects cited above cannot be
directly measured. However, it is clear that the amount of residual and bulky waste from private
households and small businesses in Düsseldorf has decreased in recent years, from 319 kg per
capita in 2000 to 262 kg per capita in 2010, or around 18%. Some of the efforts made to prevent
waste contributed to this success.

This positive development not only makes a valuable contribution to environmental and health
protection, but also reduces the cost of waste management borne by the citizens. For these reasons,
the City of Düsseldorf is therefore pursuing the objective of further minimising the amount of
waste.
Introduction

In the hierarchy of waste management, prevention is given top priority. In practice, however, it is
not always easy to achieve this aim. Basically, services need to be configured for waste prevention
from the outset, and product design should ideally feature long life cycles and reusability.
Municipalities can contribute to this process in many different ways.

In the last few decades, Düsseldorf has gained valuable experience in a variety of different areas of
waste prevention. The city has also developed a number of guidelines for administrative and
operational work.

Operational Guidelines for Purchasing

The internal purchasing standards of Düsseldorf’s administration are determined by a series of

central operational guidelines to ensure the procurement of long-life, low-pollutant products and
materials. This initiative conforms to the terms of North Rhine-Westphalia’s Waste Management
Act (NRW 2008), which states that public purchasers should show a preference for materials that,
among others qualities:

• are produced in resource-efficient and low-waste manufacturing processes

• are produced from recycled feedstock
• feature long life, reusability or recyclability
• result in less or low-pollutant waste.

Due to the large amount of materials needed for construction projects, Düsseldorf’s internal
operational guidelines for the purchasing of construction materials are of particular importance and
have been proving their worth for over ten years. The guidelines were designed specifically to
extend the working life of buildings. Another important aim was to reduce follow-up costs such as
those induced by contaminated construction materials: for example, by prohibiting materials
containing heavy metal or halogenated organic compounds.

In practice, this means that usually, for example, products containing CFC or PVC are not built in.
For indoor construction, the city chooses materials with low emissions of volatile compounds
(VOC). The administration acts according to a scheme set up by the German Committee for Health-
Related Evaluation of Building Products, pursuing ‘lowest concentrations of interest’ for a wide
variety of construction materials (AgBB 2010). If available, materials with one of the relevant eco-
labels are purchased, such as the German ‘eco angel’ or the EU ‘eco label’.

A by-product of this policy has been a reduction in the danger of indoor air pollution while
improving recycling rates for construction materials.
Photo 1: Construction of a day-care centre in Düsseldorf, applying the local guidelines for long-life and low-
pollutant construction materials.

Reuse of Equipment

Düsseldorf’s administration actively pursues a policy of selling vehicles and furniture that have
been scheduled for replacement. IT equipment is reconditioned by a non-profit municipal subsidiary
called ‘Jugendberufshilfe’, which aims to integrate young people into employment, for example by
training them as recycling specialists.

Partnerships with Charitable Organisations

Over the past two decades, Düsseldorf has worked in close cooperation with various charitable
institutions – especially church-based organisations – in the area of reconditioning used furniture,
kitchen equipment and consumer electronics. The organisations clear out flats, collect objects in
good basic condition and then recondition and sell them through their own outlets. The
reconditioning work is carried out partly in their own workshops.

In 2011, this procedure was carried out around 5,000 times in Düsseldorf. The central goal for these
charitable institutions is the reintegration of the long-term unemployed into the employment market.
In addition, lower-income families have the opportunity to buy low-cost furniture in the outlets.

Among other measures, the City of Düsseldorf supports these initiatives by financing the disposal
of the waste produced during the reconditioning process – about 1,000 Mg of bulky waste annually.
For the city, this pays off because the charitable activities can be expected to save a mass of bulky
waste much greater than 1,000 Mg per year.
Photo 2: Used furniture on its way to reconditioning on the premises of Düsseldorf’s charitable organisation,
Renatec.

Photo 3: One of Renatec’s six ‘Fairhaus’shops in Düsseldorf, selling used furniture, clothes and other items.

Promotion of Swap Meets and Flea Markets

On its website, the city promotes a variety of opportunities to sell or swap used objects on a private
basis. Some flea markets take place on municipal premises, with the largest event occurring once a
month on the site of the municipal central market, for example.
Photo 4: Flea market on the site of the municipal central market.

Photo 5: Only used items are allowed to be sold at the flea market.

Local Waste Management Rules

The local waste management statutes and complementary operational guidelines for the municipal
authorities stipulate the use of returnable dishes and cups for catering during events on municipal
premises and in municipal buildings, e.g. in Düsseldorf’s football arena. The use of returnable cups
made of polycarbonate or polypropylene has proved particularly successful. Drinks are sold in these
cups, on which a deposit is paid. The deposit is repaid to visitors when they return the cup, which is
then cleaned and used again.

From an environmental point of view, catering with these returnable cups has a much lower
environmental impact than catering with non-returnable cups. This has been shown by a detailed
study carried out by Pladerer, C. et al. (2008):
Figure 1: Environmental impact – here, greenhouse warming potential – of different systems of cups used for
catering, e.g. during major sporting events. Returnable cups minimise the amount of both waste and energy
consumption. Translated from: Pladerer, C. et al (2008).

Photo 6: Different kinds of returnable cups, made of polypropylene or polycarbonate, with or without branding.
These cups meet all demands concerning security, e.g. for catering in large stadiums during football games.

Public Information on Waste Avoidance

Düsseldorf’s citizens are provided with detailed information on waste management. This begins
with a ‘waste calendar’, a brochure that describes every local system for waste collection and is
distributed to each of the approx. 300,000 private households in Düsseldorf. Like Düsseldorf’s
website, this calendar includes information on waste avoidance. Another focus is the city’s waste
information and advisory system for day-care centres and primary schools. Here, specialised staff
from Düsseldorf’s local waste management company AWISTA carry out exercises to train people
in waste avoidance and waste separation.
Photo 7: Part of the city’s waste information and advisory system: children enjoy a ‘low-waste’ breakfast in one
of Düsseldorf’s day-care centres.

Development of the Amount of Waste

Naturally, the total amount of waste prevented by the different projects cited above cannot be
directly measured. However, it is clear that the amount of residual and bulky waste from private
households and small businesses in Düsseldorf has decreased in recent years, from 319 kg per
capita in 2000 to 262 kg per capita in 2010, or around 18%. Some of the efforts made to prevent
waste contributed to this success. This positive development not only makes a valuable contribution
to environmental and health protection, but also reduces the cost of waste management borne by the
citizens.

250000
Garden waste
Bio-waste
Recycling

200000 Clothes + shoes

Tyres
Scrap
150000 Lightweight packaging
Mg

Glass
Disposal (Incineration)

Paper + Cardboard
100000 Wood, recycling yard
Wood, curbside collection
Mixed construction waste
50000 Bulky Waste
Hazardous waste
Residual waste
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Figure 2: Development of the total amount of waste from private households and small businesses in Düsseldorf
from 2004 to 2011. During this time period, Düsseldorf’s population grew by about 3.5%.
Sorting analyses of residual waste carried out in 1998 and 2011 confirm the trend towards a
decreasing amount of residual waste in recent years (Figure 3). Primarily, this can be attributed to
better separation of the different types of waste. However, as can be seen in Figure 2, the total
amount of waste, including recyclable waste, has also decreased. This means that there is indeed a
real avoidance effect.

Figure 3 shows that the volumes of lightweight packaging waste (yellow) and glass (red) clearly
decreased between 1998 and 2011. Above all, this was caused by changes in Germany’s national
regulations on packaging waste, which led to different packaging for drinks. Since these changes,
carbonated drinks in particular are only rarely sold in glass bottles. They are usually sold in
returnable or non-returnable PET bottles instead.

Figure 3: Comparison of the composition of residual waste from private households (kg per inhabitant, without
small businesses), 1998 and 2012.

Nevertheless, the amount of other types of waste decreased, which is seen as a further example of
the success of Düsseldorf’s waste management policy.

Conclusion

The positive development not only makes a valuable contribution to environmental and health
protection, but also reduces the cost of waste management borne by the citizens. The City of
Düsseldorf is therefore pursuing the objective of further minimising the amount of waste.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the following people and local companies for providing photos: Peter
Philippen/City of Düsseldorf (2), AWISTA GmbH (1)
References

AgBB (2010): Health-Related Evaluation of Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC and
SVOC) from Building Products:
http://www.agbb-nik.de/index_en.php (Jun. 28, 2010)

NRW (2008): North Rhine-Westphalia’s Waste Management Act

http://www.umwelt.nrw.de/umwelt/pdf/labfg2008.pdf

Pladerer, C. et al. (2008): Österreichisches Ökologie-Institut, Carbotech AG, Öko-Institut e.V.

Deutschland: Vergleichende Ökobilanz verschiedener Bechersysteme beim Getränkeausschank an
Veranstaltungen.
http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/abfallwirtschaft/publikationen/oekobilanz_bechersysteme.p
df