Determination of food waste in Germany in 2020, fulfillment of the reporting obligation to the EU Commission in 2022 and derivation of recommendations for measures to be taken

According to the EU Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC), food waste (LMA) is to be reduced.

Argus GmbH

Project management:    Dr. Bertram Zwisele 
Period of time:    09.2017 - 12.2019
Client:    Umweltbundesamt together with Witzenhausen Institut GmbH, INFA Institut Ahlen, ISWA University Stuttgart (all Germany)
Relation:    National
 
Initiation and objective
According to the EU Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC), food waste (LMA) is to be reduced. Based on these legal provisions, Germany must fulfill its first reporting obligation on LMA as of the 2020 reporting year by June 30, 2022, and thereafter continue to annually record the mass of LMA generated and report it to the EU Commission.
The Federal Statistical Office (StBA) is responsible for the reporting obligation. According to Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597, reporting shall include at least the waste codes from the European Waste List for waste types that generally include food waste. All wastes to be included are listed in Annex 2 of the Delegated Decision. The StBA is establishing a monitoring system for food waste (MLMA) for annual reporting.
The definition of "food" is described in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2) and includes food as a whole, along the entire food chain from production to consumption.
Some waste streams, such as home composting containing LMA, are not subject to reporting requirements. Since countries are free to report these LMA as well, home composting was included in the reporting.
 
Description of the data collection
Table 1 shows the determined quantities and compositions of the waste types of mixed municipal waste in condensed form. A total of 21,909,338 tons of mixed municipal waste was collected in the reporting year. This corresponds to a resident-specific waste volume of 263 kg/(E*a). A total of 6,323,691 tons of food waste was collected in the year under review. This corresponds to a resident-specific waste quantity of 76 kg/(E*a). The average weighted share of food waste (waste coefficient for mixed municipal waste) is 29%. In household waste, the AKO is 33 %, in biowaste 36 % and in commercial waste similar to household waste approx. 4 %.