garbage mafia? “The mafia-like structures start with brokers and garbage brokers”

On average, every person in Germany causes almost 105 kilograms of packaging waste in the year. However, only part of this is recycled and only partly at local recycling centers. Because every fifth package goes abroad: “Historically, to Southeast Asia and especially Eastern Europe,” explain Jacqueline Goebel and Benedict Wermter in ntv’s “Climate Laboratory”. “That’s legal, German waste can also be recycled in tested plants in other EU countries,” say the journalists and authors of the new book “The Plastic Addiction”. But reality looks different. Garbage often falls into the hands of the garbage mafia, because it’s not just recycling that’s expensive: “Burning garbage costs 200 euros. If I dump it in the environment, I pay 0 euros.”

ntv.de: Your book is about the garbage mafia, among other things. To what extent is garbage suitable for criminal business and for making money?

Jacqueline Goebel: You can earn a lot of money with garbage, although it actually works the other way around: garbage is very expensive. Sorting, disposal… it takes a lot of effort to filter out raw materials from a mountain of unusable items. So if I do a lot for the environment and want to dispose of the rubbish properly and safely, it costs a lot of money. There is a saying in the industry: Garbage seeks the cheapest hole. I can make money by making garbage disappear, dispose of it illegally and only fish out what actually makes money. It’s not that easy in Europe because we have the necessary structures and controls. However, for years there has been a tendency to take the rubbish abroad because the labor costs are cheaper there and it is easier to make things disappear in one place or another.

Waste shipped abroad on a cargo plane or container ship?

Jacqueline Goebel: With the container ship. We buy goods in Asia for a lot of money and ship them to Europe. On the way back, the containers are more or less empty. They were simply loaded with rubbish, which usually comes in suitable bales. This was the typical way plastic waste was shipped abroad from Europe.

Where does the garbage go? What is the “cheapest hole”?

Benedict Wermter: Historically, these are Southeast Asia and, above all, Eastern Europe. But then there is no container ship going there, just a truck. In principle, “cheap holes” can be found wherever the control structures are not particularly developed. In this respect, the Balkans and Poland are hotspots for German and British garbage. Turkey has also taken on many waste exports from Germany and other western industrial nations.

But when the containers are empty and these countries say: Give us your rubbish, we can use it – what’s so problematic about that?

Jacqueline Goebel: That’s not a problem in itself, it’s almost like a global division of labor. The problem is the garbage itself. We assume recycling is easy; This turns waste back into raw materials. But that’s not true. The effort is only worthwhile in very few cases. What do I do with the rest? Export volumes are last declined, Garbage stays in Europe more often. For years, however, it has been sent abroad to be recycled there. But because not everything can be recycled, there is a lot of lying and cheating.

What rubbish does Germany create abroad? We actually recycle quite a lot ourselves with yellow bins and yellow sacks. This junk stays here, right?

Jacqueline Goebel: Let’s start there, how much waste is actually recycled? Each of us Germans causes alone with lightweight packaging 33 kilograms of packaging waste in the year. Above all, plastic that goes into the sorting plant. The recycling rate for this waste from the yellow bag or bin is 63 percent. But only twelve percent of the plastic that we use in Germany replaces new plastic. A completely different amount goes into the recycling plant than comes out at the end.

Because too much German garbage ends up abroad?

Benedict Wermter: No. Approximately every fifth package travels abroad from Germany and is processed into new plastic in Bulgaria, for example. This is legal, German waste can also be recycled in tested plants in other EU countries and is still included in our waste statistics. But it is more lucrative for companies in Bulgaria to accept rubbish from abroad and get paid for it. But for every tonne of garbage imported, a local tonne may not be recycled and end up being left behind.

But that has nothing to do with the garbage mafia.

Benedict Wermter: The criminal activities are the second problem. There is a lot of mischief going on in this business. Just because a recycling plant is licensed abroad does not mean that everything is going right there. For example, you can only accept certain types of plastic waste. However, it is possible that other waste also ends up there or that is not actually intended for recycling. Then it becomes criminal.

And this garbage is then simply dumped into the sea or into nature?

Jacqueline Goebel: That can happen when the importers realize that they can’t do anything with the garbage they bought.

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Benedict Wermter: Exactly. But that’s a broad field. There are people who only want criminal business. There are also disposal companies who appear legitimate and just want to do their job. But sometimes problematic material also ends up with them. Then the pressure to dispose of it illegally increases.

The garbage mafia earns money from this job?

Benedict Wermter: Mafia-like structures usually start with so-called brokers and garbage brokers. These are people who specialize in brokering rubbish.

That sounds like the stock market.

Benedict Wermter: It’s actually comparable, for example there are also spot prices for waste in sorting plants. Because only a part is recycled, the rest has to be disposed of in waste incineration, which is expensive. It’s a real business with people who act criminally and say: I have an exploitation opportunity somewhere abroad. We tracked the “transboundary shipment of waste,” as the technical term goes, together with Greenpeace and trackers. There are no limits. Some people in this business have ties to the drug trade and use violence.

Jacqueline Goebel: Let’s take shipping containers as an example. You can fit about 20 tons of garbage in them. This export is legal as long as these individual bales of garbage contain well-sorted and recyclable garbage. So I pack the bales with the good stuff like plastic bottles – these are great recyclables that are great to recycle – to the front. When a customs officer opens the container, he sees it and thinks: That looks good!

Like cocaine.

Jacqueline Goebel: Exactly. But behind the good bales I hide the dirty ones with the materials that are not well sorted. In which there are foils and maybe also aluminum and other foreign substances that don’t really belong there. But someone abroad promised me that he would take care of it and get foil and aluminum for a good price.

And then the garbage just ends up somewhere in Southeast Asia, is it burned or dumped?

Jacqueline Goebel: For example. Perhaps you will also notice at the recycling plant that the business is not profitable at all. Because the rest should actually be disposed of in waste incineration, which is really expensive. In Germany, that costs more than 200 euros a ton. If I dump the waste in the environment, I pay 0 euros.

Talked to Jaqueline Goebel and Benedict Wermter Clara Pepper and Christian Herrmann. The conversation has been shortened and smoothed for better understanding.

Climate Laboratory by ntv

What helps against climate change? “Klima-Labor” is the ntv podcast in which Clara Pfeffer and Christian Herrmann examine ideas and claims that sound great but rarely are. Climate neutral companies? lied Climate killer cow? Misleading. artificial meat? Horror 4.0. Reforestation in the south? Exacerbates problems. CO2 prices for consumers? Inevitable. LNG? Expensive.

The climate laboratory – half an hour every Thursday that provides information and cleans up. On ntv and everywhere there are podcasts: RTL+ music, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, SpotifyRSS feed

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