Category: Report

The Federal Environment Agency’s (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) publication “Compost Manual” was translated into Chinese with support from the “Sino-German Environmental Partnership” project implemented by GIZ on behalf of BMU.

One of the environmental challenges we are facing today is the closing of materials loop in a resource-efficient and environmentally friendly way. This also applies to organic waste stream. Meanwhile, legislators are not just leaving it all up to the commitment of amateur gardeners to recycle organic waste. The great majority of organic waste from private households will be collected separately and treated in centralized anaerobic digestion or composting facilities. Subsequently the digestate and compost can be used in agriculture and horticulture as fertilizer and soil improver. The Circular Economy Act and the Organic Waste Ordinance as well as the Fertilizer and Fertilization Ordinances regulate the centralized treatment and utilization of organic waste. However, there are very few obligatory specifications for the recycling of organic waste in the home garden. This compost manual is intended to provide assistance and answer questions in this regard.

The original German report can be downloaded at UBA website:
https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/publikationen/kompostfibel

The Federal Environment Agency’s (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) publication “A Guide to Environmental Administration in Germany” was translated into Chinese with support from the “Sino-German Environmental Partnership” project implemented by GIZ on behalf of BMU.

The German Environment Agency has developed a guide in English to provide a concise introduction to the German environmental administration for an international readership. The guide is divided into five sections: After the introduction in Section 1, Section 2 introduces the wide range of subjects related to environmental protection in Germany. This is followed by Section 3, which describes the array of instruments the German environmental administration uses in pursuing its goals. The administrative structure in the Federal Republic of Germany, especially the division of tasks between the federal level, the level of the (Bundes-)Länder (federal states) and the local-level are explained in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 provides examples of important procedures and instruments in administrative environmental protection.