Less packaging waste in the first Corona year 2020

Enlarge image

Yellow bags: Garbage from private households has even increased during the pandemic

Photo: David Ebener / picture alliance / dpa

In Germany, the amount of packaging waste fell slightly in the first year of the pandemic, 2020.

This emerges from the latest data from the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), which the UBA published this Thursday.

According to the UBA data, a total of almost 18.8 million tons of packaging waste was generated in 2020 - this corresponds to a decrease of 0.7 percent compared to 2019, when there were 18.9 million tons.

There was 1.7 kilograms less waste per capita and thus an average of 225.8 kilograms per year.

It is therefore the first decline since 2009. The data for 2021 will not be available to the UBA until next year.

According to the information, the decline is mainly due to the lower consumption of packaging in the trade.

There, consumption fell significantly - especially for steel packaging, where there was a drop of ten percent.

The consumption of wooden packaging such as pallets or crates also fell by 6.6 percent.

In the case of private households, on the other hand, there was an increase of 1.6 percent compared to the previous year.

According to this, private end consumers caused 46 percent of the total amount of packaging waste in 2020, i.e. more than 8.7 million tons (104.9 kilograms of waste per capita).

Do-it-yourself trend creates waste

After a decline in the previous year, the consumption of plastic packaging alone rose again by 1.2 percent to 3.2 million tons.

The UBA attributes the overall development in private households to the increased consumption in their own four walls caused by the pandemic - including shipping material or food packaging.

The trend towards DIY is also reflected.

According to UBA data, the consumption of tinplate, which had been declining in previous years, rose again by 7.3 percent.

In tinplate, for example, paints and varnishes are sold.

UBA President Dirk Messner sees an overall “lowering effect” for packaging waste in the first year of the pandemic.

“However, it is to be feared that this will not last long, similar to the case of greenhouse gas emissions”.

That's why it's important to further reduce packaging consumption, said Messner.

This can be achieved, for example, with greater use of reusable packaging, lower overall consumption and more recycling.

mamk/dpa