Waste - Why care? (Luxembourg)

With the strong population growth and the even stronger cross-border growth in commuter numbers – see country introduction – waste generation and, therefore, waste management is a crucial environmental issue in Luxembourg. Nowadays, Luxembourg has one of the highest rates of municipal waste generation per capita within the EU.

Recycling of waste, and more precisely the use of organic waste as an energy source through co-fermentation, is a key element in Luxembourg’s energy policy aiming at coping with the EU objective assigned to Luxembourg in the ‘Climate & Energy Package’ adopted by the European Union in 2008, i.e. to reach 11 % share of renewable energy in total energy consumption by 2020. Indeed, as stressed in the country profile of Luxembourg, renewable energy potentials are limited in Luxembourg and would only replace imported energy rather than replacing any electricity production from inefficient existing fossil fuel plants.