Information on the "CO₂ surcharge pursuant to BEHG" at Lobbe

Legal framework

The Fuel Emissions Trading Act (BEHG) has formed the basis for emissions trading in Germany since 01.01.2021. Anyone who places petrol, diesel, heating oil and natural gas on the market or supplies it must pay a fixed CO₂ price for it. This regulation was previously limited to the transport and heating sectors. In November 2022, the Bundestag decided with the majority of the traffic light parties that the incineration of waste should also be subject to the rules of the BEHG. Implementation was suspended for 2023 due to the economic conditions. The price for 2024 is 45 euros per tonne of CO₂.

This is the amount that must be paid from now on for every tonne of CO₂ released during waste incineration. But how much CO₂ is produced when a particular waste is incinerated? This is regulated by the Ordinance on Emissions Reporting under the Fuel Emissions Trading Act for the years 2023 to 2030 (EBeV 2030). There is an annex to this ordinance. Part 5 of this annex contains a table listing the standard values for calculating fuel emissions in the cases covered by Section 2 (2a) BEHG. The legislator has therefore specified the amount of CO₂ released during incineration for each waste code (AVV numbers).

The implementation at Lobbe

The aim is to reflect the legal requirements and to pass on the actual costs incurred to our customers as transparently and appropriately as possible.

For services from 01.01.2024, Lobbe will show a "CO₂ surcharge according to BEHG" per ton on the invoices for disposal items. The item is subject to VAT, but is not included in the total for calculating the energy index. The parameters specified by the legislator, the statutory CO₂ price and the determined weight or bulk weight are used to determine the item. A distinction is also made between disposal facilities and, in some cases, material flows. This is necessary because many wastes or waste code numbers are not incinerated and therefore do not receive a CO₂ surcharge.

These are the main variants that you can find on your invoice:

  • A waste is incinerated directly in an incineration plant that is subject to contributions. The legally stipulated CO₂ surcharge for the waste with its original AVV number is billed based on weight.
  • Commercial waste (see example 1) is not usually incinerated directly, but is first pre-treated. In the commercial sorting plants, this waste is separated according to its recyclability. Part of the waste stream is then sent for incineration as sorting residue with the AVV number 191212 (other waste (including material mixtures) from the mechanical treatment of waste with the exception of waste falling under 191211) and is subject to the surcharge for waste with the AVV number 191212. We invoice this sorting residue portion with the surcharges for AVV number 191212. The surcharge for this waste is therefore lower than the legally specified surcharge.
  • Non-commercial waste, such as paint sludge, oil sludge, filter and absorbent materials that go into Lobbe plants are checked upon delivery and subsequently assigned to a treatment route or 'material flow'. Depending on the nature of an individual batch, this material flow can also change. The material flows differ with regard to the CO₂ surcharge. Some are surcharge-free. Where surcharges arise, they can be at the level of the regulation or deviate upwards or downwards as a percentage depending on the process. Exceeding the statutory surcharge values, which is based on an increase in quantity, is easy to understand. This is always the case when substances are added as part of the treatment and the weight during incineration is therefore higher than the original weight (see example 2).
  • Liquid waste often contains solids that must be treated separately as residues. This can lead to the actual waste being charged without a CO₂ surcharge, but the solids or boiler residues are charged with a CO₂ surcharge.

Example 1:

A customer collects five tons of commercial waste with the AVV number 150106 (mixed packaging) in a roll-off container and has it treated by Lobbe in a commercial waste sorting plant.

In the commercial waste processing plant, 10 percent of the waste is sorted out as recyclable materials and sent for recycling. This reduces the proportion for incineration to 90 percent, in this case 4.5 tons. This sorting residue is sent to an incineration plant for thermal recycling with the AVV number 191212. Therefore, the CO₂ surcharge according to BEHG is not calculated from the original AVV number 150106, but the AVV number 191212 of the waste output of the pre-treatment plant is decisive. The weight advantage and the changed AVV number are taken into account and billed based on the input quantity of five tons.

Example 2:

A customer commissions us to clean a tank, for which we take ten tons of oily cleaning sludge with the AVV number 160708 (oily waste) to our waste treatment plant. In the treatment plant, the pasty sludge is solidified with the addition of ten percent conditioning agent and thus prepared for incineration plants, making it suitable for bunkering or conveying. The output of our pre-treatment plant is therefore eleven tons of waste with the AVV number 191211* (other waste (including material mixtures) from the mechanical treatment of waste containing hazardous substances). Therefore, the specific CO₂ surcharge in accordance with the BEHG for the AVV number 191211 is taken into account for the eleven tons and invoiced in relation to the input quantity of ten tons.

to the regulation

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