Arisings and fates of mineral wastes

When the Soil Protection Act came into force, new technical concepts of soil and groundwater protection were established and new allocation values were to be defined for the use of mineral waste, for example for the manufacture of construction products, for installation in technical structures and for use in earthworks. There were fierce disputes between the legislator and those affected over these allocation values. Against this background, the Öko-Institut was commissioned to investigate whether and to what extent the new allocation values would hinder the previously established recycling processes.

To this end, the relevant mineral wastes, their generation and disposal routes (including backfilling) were determined and their solids content and eluate values were compiled using the ABANDA analysis database, among others. The solids contents and eluate values were then compared with the old and new allocation values in order to determine for which waste types (and masses) the new allocation values would make it more difficult or impossible to utilise the previous routes. If this resulted in difficulties or if the previous recovery process was no longer feasible, the other recovery options still available were shown.