Overview

• In a four-week push starting today, about 40 municipalities are conducting coordinated inspections under the Wir für Bio campaign in cities including Lübeck, Göttingen, Magdeburg, Kaiserslautern and Ulm.
• Gravely misfilled brown bins are left unemptied and tagged with red cards or stickers for re-sorting, and uncorrected cases can be collected later as residual waste at reported costs around €40.
• National rules in force since May cap biowaste at a maximum of 1% plastic and 3% total foreign matter, and officials stress that so-called compostable plastic bags count as contaminants.
• Some waste operators are using sensors and AI camera systems on collection vehicles to detect foreign objects during emptying, with Reutlingen cited as an example.
• Participation and penalties vary by location, with Brandenburg, Saarland, Berlin, Bremen and Saxony reported as not taking part and no uniform national fine schedule in place.