Waste

Waste is generated not only in the more than one hundred shops, restaurants, and service providers in the terminal but also during the catering of passengers or in the workshops. Most of the waste is comparable to the waste generated in households.

Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH follows the legal requirements of the Circular Economy and Waste Management Act when handling waste. What cannot be avoided is prepared for reuse and recycled. Where this is not possible, energy is recovered or filled in. Waste that is unsuitable for such recovery must be disposed of in a harmless and proper manner.

The company has developed a system that incentivises waste avoidance. Companies located in the terminal are therefore obliged to separate their waste as is customary in households and to place it in waste collection containers. The waste bags, which are coded by producer, are weighed, and the disposal costs are charged to the producer. Bulky waste made of paper, cardboard and wood, scrap metal, and plastics as well as hazardous waste are delivered to the disposal yard by the waste producers at defined acceptance times. This waste is also weighed and assigned to the respective polluter.

An experienced and efficient external service provider takes care of the logistics and environmentally friendly disposal of the waste at Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH.

Waste attributable to the balance sheet of the airport company is generated in the passenger area, in the maintenance and repair of flight operations areas, buildings, and technical facilities, and in the offices and workshops used by the company. In accordance with the Circular Economy Act, a distinction is made between hazardous waste (e.g. sludge from oil/water separators, fluorescent lamps, or construction waste containing hazardous substances) and non-hazardous waste (e.g. municipal waste, street sweepings, or uncontaminated concrete). In part, the waste quantities are subject to strong fluctuations when comparing several reporting years. These result from dismantling work and remediation measures as well as from the disposal of waste from oil/water separators in certain cycles.

Looking at the balance sheet, it is noticeable that significantly more hazardous waste was generated in 2023 than in the previous year. This is primarily due to a dismantling measure in the northern area of BER. Here, the area of an old tank farm still used by Schönefeld Airport was remediated, resulting in large quantities of contaminated soil. Non-hazardous waste, on the other hand, decreased slightly, which is mainly due to fewer construction projects being carried out overall.