waste

For the EU27 and Germany, the climate protection potential of the circular economy was examined for municipal waste, industrial & commercial, construction & demolition and food waste for 2017 and 2030 using the life cycle assessment method. The study shows the sector's GHG mitigation potential, including food waste prevention, in the context of the EU legal framework and the energy transition.

A selection of pictures from the Erhard Collection of the Environmental Library at the German Environment Agency in Dessau-Roßlau

The European Commission issued a legislative proposal with seven measures for reducing waste on European beaches. The main aim of the proposal is to reduce the input of the most frequent plastic waste categories (top litter items). These are mainly single-use products such as food containers, cups, plastic bottles and cigarette butts, but also balloon sticks.

The German Environment Agency welcomes the EU’s initiative to change the use of plastics in Europe. The European Commission presented its Plastics Strategy on January 16th.

The Advisory Assistance Programme of UBA has been supporting the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States for many years in the development of effective waste management structures. Seminars and workshops held in May and June 2017 provided targeted information and training for stakeholders from government, industry and non-governmental organizations.

Antarctica was only first discovered in the early 19th century – no human had ever set foot on the southernmost continent before that. Even today, there are no permanent settlements aside from scientific stations. The people who travel to the Antarctic today are researchers, tourists or journalists.