Over the past few years, more than 100 cities in Germany have saved around 1,600 gigawatt hours of energy by using recycled paper. This emerges from the current “Paper Atlas” of the Initiative Pro Recyclingpapier, which was presented on Tuesday in Berlin. According to the evaluation, the cities surveyed, including the major cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, have increased their share of recycled paper by more than 25 percent since 2008 – from 68 percent 15 years ago to an average of 93.7 percent in 2021.
As a spokesman for the initiative explained, the 1,600 gigawatt hours saved correspond roughly to the amount of energy needed to supply the residents of Munich with electricity for a year. The water savings are also significant. Due to the use of recycled paper, it has been more than 7.4 billion liters of water since 2008, the spokesman explained.
Nuremberg at the forefront
The city of Nuremberg secured the title of “most recycling paper-friendly city” this year. Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) presented her with the “Paper Atlas” award on Tuesday in Berlin. According to the organizers, Nuremberg achieved the highest overall score for the use of recycled paper in public facilities. According to this, 100 percent of the paper used by the city administration in 2021 was recycled paper with the Blue Angel environmental seal. Nuremberg also received special points for the use of recycled paper outside of the city administration, for example in public schools. Hamelin in Lower Saxony and Mönchengladbach in North Rhine-Westphalia took second place. The German capital Berlin came in fifth. In the district and university categories, the Unstrut-Hainich district in Thuringia and the University of Vechta in Lower Saxony took first place.
The “Paper Atlas” has been documenting the recycling paper quotas in German cities since 2008, and for several years also in universities and districts. Last year, 102 large and medium-sized cities submitted their data for the city evaluation. The number of medium-sized cities recorded has grown steadily since 2008. According to the information, the data from around 60 major cities has been constantly transmitted for 15 years.
