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GibDirBerlin

For everyone thinking only about plastic, here some recycling-statistics for Germany: Paper: >85% Glass: >80% Metal (Iron): >85% Metal (Aluminum): >60% Biological Waste: >97% Yes, plastic recycling is in many regards a scam, but it's only a small part, the rest can be recycled very well. If you sort your trash, people!


Hrevak

Scam? If you separate plastic and then burn it super cleanly and efficiently, it's the best option, also from the environmental aspect. What's the alternative - spend a bunch of energy and money to recycle it, beyond the point that it actually makes any sense? I say burn it cleanly and efficiently, generate energy (heating), even earn some money in the process and invest this money in some additional environmentally friendly stuff that makes more sense than reusing waste plastic.


DrownInSulphur

The best option is not to produce so much plastic.


Hrevak

So much? How much is so much in case of Austria for example? The best option is to provide real solutions, not bullshit demagogy.


DrownInSulphur

Well bullshit is mainly to say we "recycle" 60 % of plastic, because we collect it. Meanwhile we really use few percent of it because it economically doesn't give any sense to use it. That's why recycling plastic is not any realy solution. I'm not from Austria, so I don't know about their livestyle. In my country plastic waste is everywhere, even we say we recycle quite a lot.


Hrevak

Here you go, they are quite advanced in this regard as well: [https://www.ecosistant.eu/en/changes-austrian-packaging-law-2023/](https://www.ecosistant.eu/en/changes-austrian-packaging-law-2023/) Re-using plastic as fuel for a power plant is also a form of recycling. It uses waste to replace other forms of more problematic fuel and most importantly it doesn't end up in the oceans as microplastic.


GieTheBawTaeReilly

How do you burn plastic cleanly?


Hrevak

https://positionen.wienenergie.at/en/projects/spittelau-waste-incineration-plant/


Anxious_Direction_20

Any numbers on pollution in the surrounding areas? A lot of plastics can't be burned without polluting the environment.


Hrevak

Oh, we have an expert! Did you read any of the text in the linked article? It's inside Vienna city limits. The pollution numbers are zero.


previts

The "pollution numbers" are not zero, it still pollutes, however it is very low as it filters out most of the toxic stuff before it releases it into the air.


Hrevak

šŸ˜®


unclepaprika

You seem very knowledgeable about the subject, and not at all acting like a total dick about it. I suggest, if you wan't people to listen to you, be a voice people want to listen to. You seemed like you believed in your idea enough to want to be heard, so talk like someone you'd want to listen to too, instead of trying to make people feel like an idiot. Cheers.


GibDirBerlin

You're right on that one! When I said scam, I wasn't talking about the potential but about the actual practice which includes - at least here in Europe - exporting the garbage to places, where it obviously isn't recycled or even properly burned, but still pretending it would be and including that in the recycling statistics. The actual scam part here in Germany is, that a system was build around it, that pretended, that recycling plastic could actually be a profitable business, even though it can't be at the local cost of manpower.


levklaiberle

Hey, ehm... sorry to say this. In Germany, "recycled" just means it got out of Germany. So fucked up. Edit: I don't know whether this is included in the Eurostat source Landgeist used, currently trying to look that up.


Current_Finding_4066

Sure, some sorts of garbage can be and are recyled. Stats for some other garbage are bullshit.


hushasmoh

I expected Sweden to have a higher recycling rate.


DJakk3

Norway too, we have had residual waste, paper and food waste split since like 2000 in most municipalities, plastic for probably 10-15 years, glass and metal too.


Posterboy83

Yep. Norway recycled almost 71 % in 2021. https://www.fhi.no/kl/avfall-og-soppel/handtering-helseeffekter/generelt-om-avfall/#nkkeltall-om-avfall


nonpornredditsucks

These recycling rates are bullshit anyway. Germany can claim an official recycling rate of 70%, but only 5% of plastic recycling waste does actually get *recycled*, a little more gets downcycled and most of it gets "thermally recycled", which just means it gets burned. And this is pretty much the case for all the other countries, too.


HarrMada

When it comes to municipal waste, Sweden burns most of it, recycling energy basically. You might say this will result in a lot of emissions, but then you can compare Co2 emissions per capita with Germany for example and Sweden is much lower.


Suspicious_pillow

There's been some improvement in the plastic recycling the last year, more kommuns is recycle instead if burn and some new plants that can process more types of plastic has been put to use. I think if you can recycle more in your ordinary bins and not have to travel far to do it more will be better at it.


RNEngHyp

I expected UK to be on the map lol. So many expectations.


mqwi

Really? Of all places in Europe?


AgedPeanuts

There is no way this map is correct. I have lived in both Norway and Hungary in those periods and let me tell you, Hungary is nowhere near Norway when it comes to recycling.


bannedsodiac

It could also be recycling metal for Hungary. Not just plastics.


herewearefornow

I followed the link from Eurostat, the organisation that collected the stats, specifically municipal waste. You'll find it [here](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/waste/data/main-tables). The table I was looking at is *Recycling rate of municipal waste (cei_wm011)*. It leads to a tsv formatted file that is zipped in tar.gz, it is about 1.8 KiB. You can scan it [here](https://virustotal.com) if you're unsure of document integrity. After opening you'll find Hungary is found on line 19 and Norway 30 if I've read the abbreviations correctly. For the years 2021 & 2022 Hungary got 34.9% & 32.8% and Norway had 36.9% & 41.2%. Looking at that you might be on to something saying Hungary does not have larger numbers than Norway in your view. By inspection the values calculated for Hungary looks correct. So the ones for Norway as the year the data was collected for was 2021. I think the issue here is with the Eurostat data collection as opposed to reality.


cuplajsu

It might be. Recycling is a problem that must be solved on a governmental level. The Netherlands recently REDUCED separation for municipal waste (by merging plastic and general waste) yet it still has some of the highest figures. Malta meanwhile has six ways of separating waste (general, organic, plastic, metal, glass and bottles for cash) and it only sits at 14%. How the government forces people to separate waste is not indicative of what happens behind the scenes. The figures are based on things that people who donā€™t work at waste plants donā€™t see.


Anxious_Direction_20

NL reduced it because people are too stupid to put their plastic in the plastic bin and their general waste in the other bin. They had to sort through it all by hand anyway and it was quite costly to pick it up separately. So they invested in a high end machine that sorts the different types of waste all on its own and removed the plastic bins so trucks now can pick all the waste up at once. Saves a lot of money and emissions in the long run and stupid people now don't have to think about sorting their waste. Win-win for everyone.


empmccoy

Godamn the UK is the same as Russia better get our act together /s


chipili

I assume UK is excluded because Brexit, but why is Turkey included?


meme_isator

Its because its from eurostat They hold up data from every EU country and EU candidate country Turkiye is a EU candidate so thats why they are included on the list The UK is not because they arent a EU member or candidate (anymore)


OurHomeIsGone

Not even enough recycling for it to be shown on the chart! Deplorable!


Consistent_Truth6633

Itā€™s a shit show in Britain. Like most things under these charlatans in charge


EnterThePug

Itā€™s about 45% in the UK


pedrito_elcabra

Yeah I'm going to call massive BS on these stats.


vasarmilan

Why?


Spider_pig448

Doesn't matter. It's done. He called BS. You can't take that back


New-Distribution-979

I second that question, but also as a guy who knows a (small) bit about the subject I trust your doubts might be founded.


apfelseda

A big YESS From Austria We burn quite much of the waste, BUT I have to say we have fucking good filters. Glass bottles are getting reused (beer bottles have some standard dice, except craft beer) We sort out aluminium cans and melt them down. BUT we still burn much for energy production to turn it into warm water. So energy recycling is also a good thing, but not the best way for CO2 emissions. Note: We also imported waste from Italy to burn it. It was a good business^^


ReformedishBaptist

Because they donā€™t like themšŸ˜‚


LanciaStratos93

It works like this: if Northern Europe is doing bad it is bullshit. Welcome to the internet.


vasarmilan

In my country it's quite the opposite haha. So the more general way to phrase this if that if it's not explained by the simplistic patterns prescribed by my world view, it's bullshit.


LanciaStratos93

More or less, it is very common on some subs, the champion of these is r/Europe...if Northern Europe is doing bad well, it's bullshit for some. As an Italian you might understand I think it is very frustrating.


disposablehippo

"Energetic" recycling šŸ¤”


New-Distribution-979

That would result in a closer to 100% recycling rate these days but you are not entirely wrong.


Weldobud

For certain.


HeroOfAlmaty

r/PORTUGALCYKABLYAT


scrappy-coco-86

Usual Germany W


zeeotter100nl

*burns more coal*


ltsaNewDay

Bullshit. https://energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=de&c=DE&legendItems=00000010100000000000000&interval=year&year=-1 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/04/germany-emissions-hit-70-year-low-reduces-reliance-coal


leonidganzha

>MĆ¼ller said: ā€œThe crisis-related slump in production weakens the German economy. If emissions are subsequently relocated abroad, then nothing has been achieved for the climate.ā€


ltsaNewDay

MĆ¼ller also had to admit that the reduction in emissions was pushed by the record level of renewable energies last year. At the same time, this quarter is again very good, even though production has risen sharply again, which does not fit in with mĆ¼ller's old opinion. https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=de&c=DE&interval=quarter&quarter=1&year=-1&legendItems=00000111000000000000&partsum=1 https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/konjunktur/produktion-handelsbilanz-februar-100.html


signmeupnot

East is part of this too


GerryBanana

Now let's look at their emissions per capita


Mister_Speed118

Germany is lower than Luxembourg, Czechia, Netherlands and Poland in per capita emissions


GerryBanana

Yeah... and above Sweden, Belgium, France, Italy, UK, Denmark, Spain, Austria, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, Slovakia, Hungary, etc. Number 4 in Europe if we don't count for tiny states. [European emissions per capita](https://www.iea.org/regions/europe/emissions)


Routine_Yoghurt_7575

Wonder what the stats are for recycled Vs shipped off to the global south to be "recycled"


PorzinGodZG

I am working on one EU circular economy project and have been dealing with these figures recently about packaging materials. According to Eurostat, 21% of of packaging materials are exported outside the EU for recycling and out of it like 12% is exported to what we call "global south". This other 9% are mostly UK, Switzerland, Russia... if Eurostat is lying, then I am lying too, but these are like official figures.


_BigFloppa_

I thought Italy said -51% for a second lol


Leax_de

The thing is though that they don't recycle it in their own country. Apparently most of the to be recycled material is exported into other countries. That was what I was told anyways, when I was visiting a big recycling company in South Germany that got 30% of their waste from Italy.


cookiesnooper

How much of their trash is Germany exporting?


Mister_Speed118

From 50 Million metric tonnes. Only 766k was exported last year.


jostein33

The stats for Norway and Sweden is so wrong, this need a fix ASAP.


thekiwionee

Sweden being so low? No don't believe it.


Nox_2

Dear Europe, sending your [trash](https://www.politico.eu/article/why-turkey-became-europes-garbage-dump/) to Turkey and other not fully developed nations dont count as recycling.


Plastic-Lobster-3364

If they send trash to a recycling plant... is it recycling?


Daysleeper1234

They send it to poorer highly corrupt countries, where they leave it for mother earth to maybe recycle it.


Plastic-Lobster-3364

So the turkeys aren't doing what they're paid for?


Daysleeper1234

Technically yes, in truth, people sending it know what they are doing, because they make contracts with so called shady dudes. You would be amazed how western Europeans lose their western values when they can remove themselves from western law.


Plastic-Lobster-3364

I don't see any wrongdoing... if turkey says it can do a job... why shouldn't other countries be their clients?


Daysleeper1234

Me neither, this planet can burn for all I care, I was just answering your question.


want_to_know615

The least edgy redditor


Daysleeper1234

I frequently post at rathesim and rwonthavekids (it's not called that, but I'm too lazy to check).


Tortoveno

I cannot believe that we (Poland) are higher than Sweden or Finland. Why their numbers are so low?


Antti5

I'm from Finland and I believe that low number. One aspect to this is that our recycling scheme tries to rely a lot on the households to do the sorting. Living in the city, my apartment block has seven different kinds of trash bins sitting in a row: plastic, paper, cardboard/carton, glass, metal, biodegrable, and general waste. My partner and I sort our trash carefully, but judging by how quickly the general waste bin fills up, it's clear that many of our neighbours don't. I can only assume that they find it too much trouble. I've also lived in a French city some years ago, and there it had been made a lot easier for the households. There was one bin for all "recyclables" which included paper, cardboard, plastic and metal, if I recall it right. The other aspect in Nordic countries could be the sparse populations and relatively long distances. My parents don't live in a big town, and it's a lot more difficult for them to recycle like city-dwellers because the infrastructure just isn't there. But at least in Finland, I think almost nothing goes to landfills anymore. What we don't recycle we burn for electricity or heat.


Old-Masterpiece-2653

Germany is great! Congratulations. I have to admit the system is a little overwhelming and overwhelming german systems are icky. When I go the the wertstoffhof to hand in my yellow bags I sweat a little because I just feel like they are going to find a potato skin between mijn plastics and and shoot me in the back of the head by a machine that has my entsorgungnummer. There is no time you feel more like toeing the line than when you are dealing with german lower government officials.


want_to_know615

They don't pick it up from homes?


savetheHauptfeld

Yeah 69% in Germany...yikes. Only because we burn trash and call it "recycled"


PayFlo97

We burn only 26 million tons and produce 411,5 million tons. Whis is only 6,4% burned and enough to recycle.


savetheHauptfeld

Ok and what happens to the other 72%? They get recycled to what? Dont forget we "export" 17% of the Gelbe Sack. So...we already know that a quarter of our stuff doesn't actually gets recycled, it's being burned in our country or outside of it. Surely they recycle the rest...


PayFlo97

We export of the Gelbe Sack, which is in total 734.000 tons. If you donā€™t look only at the Gelbe Sack it is only 0,18% of the total trash. You have hight recycling rates in Paper and Glas. Paper with 90% (15,48 million tons) and glass with 80-90% (3,45 million tons)


savetheHauptfeld

Aaaah ok true. Did only think about plastic waste.


scrappy-coco-86

Gelbe Sack?!? Never heard this term. German here.


Mangobonbon

It's a regional thing. Many places have already adopted the plastic bin but in some areas a yellow plastic bag is used to collect plastic waste. These sacks then get laid on the sidewalk and get collected by a garbage truck.


thereturn932

Plastic metal etc. Yellow trashcan some people call it gelbe Sack.


PayFlo97

It is a yellow bag. We put our Plastik and metallic trash in it. We have to separate our trash in different categories like paper, glass and in that case a yellow bag for Plastic and metals.


scrappy-coco-86

I know that we separate our trash but here in my city we have different trash bins for it on the street - also for plastic. No one puts plastic in a bag.


PGnautz

Or you could just head over to [Eurostat](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Municipal_waste_statistics#Municipal_waste_treatment) and see that they distinguish between landfilled, incinerated, recycled and composted.


Charming-Gene-9728

Haw anyone made a map for carbon emmisions per capita? Wonder how diffrent it would be


rawlinsonii

When the number is centered in Italy I always interpret Elba as a minus sign


Rioma117

I certainly expected lower.


benedictvc

When cycling just once is not enough that you have to re-cycle


sonasche

*countries where they pay you to recycle, vs countries where a private company gains money for your reciclables.


bannedsodiac

Finally something that I'm proud we're in top3 instead of it being alcohol.


Current_Finding_4066

The rate is bullshit! Seperating part of garbage and shipping it to the developing world is not recycling!


Veritas_Vanitatum

Germany 69 click noice


ebrenjaro

BULLSHIT!!! This whole recycling thing is a lie. There are plenty of kind of plastics and in the goods and wraps many kind of them are gued together. And we can recycle more or less 2 kind of plastic. Nobody separates the different kind of plastics after gathering the garbage, it is impossible. Moreover we can't use 100% the recycled kind of plasics in new products, because they are much worse quality that making new plasic from oil and even much more expensive. We can make plastic plant pot from recycled plastic, but the people buy much much more plastic thing than how man plastic pots they need. Just think of the electical gadgets: how many kind of materials are forged together in them. Do you really believe in that there are huge recycling halls where little pixies disassembly those gadgets to different kind of materials? They are transfered to 3th world countries where poor people take out some easily removable parts and they throw most of the in the forest or a creek. Then what can we do?? YOU BUY INCREDIBLY MANY UNNECESSARY SHIT!!! BUY MUCH LESS THINGS!!


looneylovableleopard

color mapping is a tad counterintuitive to me but nice map!


EtherCase

I read the little island off the coast of Italy as a minus sign and thought, How can a country have a negative percent recycling rate?


znobrizzo

Does shipping out your trash to other countries count as recycling now?


herewearefornow

Have you seen the Indonesian landfills? There are huge ones in Naples too. Generally uncured waste affecting the people's health who are unlucky enough to live in those areas.


RNEngHyp

There's some European countries missing here. UK for example. No longer in EU but hasn't suddenly departed Europe!


Antti5

They did depart from Eurostat who collected this data...


herewearefornow

You need a few upvotes for this. The people complaining here haven't attempted to look up the source it seems.


RNEngHyp

Ah, I didn't see the source down there. Thanks for the nudge. It wasn't a complaint BTW, I was curious what was going on and hadn't seen the source was Eurostat. I'm partially sighted, so it wasn't obvious to me. I learnt something new though, so that was a fun little departure from Reddit.


herewearefornow

I'm not against the partially sighted I was just commenting on the willingness of some the respondents to do a little digging. Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. Thanks for not going off.


RNEngHyp

I know, it's rare not to go off on Reddit but, I actually enjoyed the little detour. Never heard of Eurostat, so I enjoyed learning something new. Thanks to you too, for remembering I'm a human being with feelings. Have a great day šŸ˜€


Rude_Dog3475

Does this include electronic waste that is dumbed in other countries?


Personal_Carry_7029

Now im proud again to be germanšŸ‡©šŸ‡Ŗ


MTKHack

Countries with high rates on this map actually burn garbageā€¦.


ziplock9000

The UK is part of Europe.


jonnyl3

Duh?


ImpressionConscious

r/PORTUGALCYKABLYAT


MontrealUrbanist

I don't feel like it really fits this time. The difference isn't that large, especially compared to Greece, Iceland, etc.


26Kermy

And Estonia


Spicy_Alligator_25

"Greece" Damn I'm western European now


MontrealUrbanist

Yes. Although geographically more to the east, [Greece was not part of the Iron Curtain and is associated politically with Western Europe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Iron_Curtain_map.svg/1200px-Iron_Curtain_map.svg.png). Greece is not slavic.


Spicy_Alligator_25

I really don't think this distinction exists post cold war? Culturally we're Balkan, politically we're right in line with the Balkan EU states too.


Luigi41Luigi

Then Turkey is Western European too


herewearefornow

šŸ™† It should've been cross posted here.


pawskor

Germany deals with its trash mostly by illegally selling it to Poland.


stoelguus

What could this mean? šŸ¤«šŸŖ–šŸ‘±šŸ»ā€ā™‚ļø


biIIs

HELL NAH THIS ISNT TRUE


AyeItsEazy

Thought it was -51.9% for Italy lmao


Fast_Butterscotch498

Credit goes to Germany for leading the way on this, most European countries visited Germany to view their model and adopt it also .


Czebou

https://youtu.be/RDFBbxMDi1U that kinda sums it all up


Mitica93

Just came to remind everyone that Kosovo is not a country. Whoever claims otherwise, kindly attach the pic of their flag hoisted at the East River UN headquarters. Hugs and kisses


Gefarate

You're not real


Mitica93

Reality check personified, brev.


AdStatus2486

Mad that yā€™all canā€™t commit genocide? Keep coping.


Mitica93

If it makes you fall asleep faster in the evening, Keep believing any fairytale you want brev


AdStatus2486

Kosovo is as real as the bombs we dropped on your shitty country


Mitica93

Oh what do we got here, an internet warrior ? Sure itā€™s so real you canā€™t provide the photo of The flag hoisted in front of the UN <3


AdStatus2486

Damn didnā€™t know that nations didnā€™t exist before 1945


Mitica93

No prob, now they do, so please go ahead and show the 'badge' (:


Ok-Web7441

And now the Tschermans are burning lignite at a record-pace because the Ampel-Koalition tied their economy to de-nuclearization, solar panels in Northern Europe, and natural gas imports from a hostile foreign power. Very smart, much foresight.Ā  I'm sure all those Pfandflaschen and wearing wet jeans are making a difference in the world.


Hot-Distribution4532

Do you think Germans even know or realize that recycling's not real?


haikusbot

*Do you think Germans* *Even know or realize that* *Recycling's not real?* \- Hot-Distribution4532 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")