Die Abfallwirtschaft als Teilbereich der kommunalen Umweltpolitik

The key topic of this paper is to explain the above average increase of local waste charges in Germany, in addition the special importance of local within national environmental policies. The jump of waste charges, especially since 1990, has originated in the changed institutional setting of waste management, for its part a result of increasing waste material. It includes an expansion of waste management services (for instance, waste treatment, waste disposal), higher technical demands referring to waste disposal (waste incineration, waste disposal sites) and excess capacity of municipal incinerators resulting from a higher percentage of waste recycling. In addition to financing disposal and treatment, waste charges shall also give financial incentives to waste avoidance considering the social costs of waste management (for instance, pollutants of waste incineration) ("ecological waste charges"). The authors recommend to apply new approaches to collect charges, that give rise to waste avoidance and recycling. On this economic and legal basis three comparing case studies concerning waste management and waste charges are carried out (city and district of Augsburg and district of Aichach-Friedberg).