Press release No. 371 of 5 September 2022
- Disposed biowaste up by almost a quarter in ten years
- Households composted roughly 2.6 million tonnes of biowaste, or 31 kilograms per capita, according to an estimation carried out for the first time
- Waste from restaurants, canteen kitchens and markets decreased strongly in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while the volume collected from bio-bins increased
- Electricity from biogas accounted for 5.8% of gross electricity production in 2020
WIESBADEN – Households in Germany composted approximately 2.6 million tonnes of biowaste in 2020. Based on an estimate prepared for the first time, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that this is an average of roughly 31 kilograms of home composted waste per capita. The total volume of biowaste from residential areas amounted to 14.4 million tonnes in 2020 (excluding biowaste generated by agriculture and industry). In addition to the home composted household waste, this figure includes 11.8 million tonnes of biowaste collected by waste disposal companies, including waste from the bio-bin, garden and park waste, kitchen and canteen waste, edible oils and fats, and market waste. The volume of such waste has increased by almost a quarter (+23.7%) since 2010. In the Covid-year of 2020, the volume of waste from the bio-bin, in particular, went up markedly compared with 2019, whereas the volume of other biowaste in part decreased considerably.
