Munich's declaration of war on the garbage: Everyone is challenged!

Created: 07/05/2022, 19:00

By: Nadja Hoffmann

Common path: Mayor Dieter Reiter and municipal officer Kristina Frank.

© Marcus sleep

Less waste, better separated and therefore sustainably recycled: Munich wants to improve its waste balance by 2035.

1.8 million euros are to be spent on the “zero waste” strategy.

The first decision will be made on Thursday.

"The best rubbish is the one that isn't created in the first place:" Even if Dieter Reiter (SPD) is right with this credo, our mayor knows, of course, that there is no big city without rubbish.

But the mountains of waste are to be reduced – this is what Munich’s new “Zero Waste” strategy envisages by 2035.

Objective: fight against wasting resources!

On Thursday, the municipal committee will first vote on the timetable, which Reiter presented together with AWM plant manager and municipal officer Kristina Frank (CSU).

Background: With 720,000 tons of municipal waste per year, 43 percent of which is residual waste, Munich is above the average for other German cities.

"That's something we have to change," explains Reiter.

In 2019 he asked the administration to develop a "zero waste" concept.

A task,

which went to the waste management company in 2020.

Two years later there is a package with a total of 100 concrete measures.

1.8 million euros for a large package of measures

The city is to provide 1.8 million euros for this over the next few years.

Coordination is in the hands of a new "Zero Waste" department with up to seven posts.

"But we need everyone on board," emphasized Frank: Citizens, schools, companies, the construction sector and the administration itself should of course be involved.

Everyone can contribute to the task.

And ensure that waste is better separated: This is important in order to change the so-called misthrow quotas.

Every citizen can make a contribution

The goals by 2035 include reducing household waste by 15 percent per capita, which corresponds to 56 kilos per year.

The proportion of organic waste in residual waste is to be reduced by 20 percent and the recycling rate to be increased to 60 percent.

At the same time, the yellow bin will be introduced in the city on a trial basis for three years.

Reiter also spoke out in favor of supporting the unpackaged shops where the "Plastic-free July" campaign is currently running (see below).

Criticism from the Green City Council faction

The application for the topic came from his SPD/Volt faction.

Kathrin Abele, spokeswoman for the municipal committee, was correspondingly happy that it is now being implemented.

“With the concept we are taking a decisive step further on the way to the Zero Waste City.

If we consistently pursue these goals and measures, we can make a major contribution to Munich becoming a climate-neutral municipality.

As the city councilors Christian Smolka and Julia Post emphasized, "in some questions it falls short of the requirements of a circular economy - for example in the collection and recycling of electronic waste and organic waste".

The targeted collection quotas are “far from sufficient”.

Improvement: "urgently desired"!