In transposition of the EU Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC), the Act promoting closed substance cycle waste management and ensuring the environmentally sound management of waste (Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act) of 24 February 2012 has reoriented German waste legislation in a wide variety of ways. The new provisions not only ensure preservation of the environment, but are significantly more tailored to climate protection and resource conservation than was previously the case. To this end, a number of key legal concepts are redefined and new principles of law introduced through the five-tier waste hierarchy in particular. In light of this, the legal provisions of the Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act, in particular the five-tier waste hierarchy, require substantiation with regard to individual waste streams in the form of regulations or administrative provisions in order to ensure legal certainty and security of investment in the enforcement of the Act. The Ordinance serves this purpose for the sewage sludge sector.

The planned amendment of the Sewage Sludge Ordinance will initiate a reorientation of the recovery of sewage sludge, sewage sludge mixtures and sewage sludge composts in Germany. The Sewage Sludge Ordinance governs the recovery of sewage sludge primarily from municipal waste water treatment plants, with the aim of returning the important components of sewage sludge (phosphorus) to the economic cycle more extensively than was previously the case and, at the same time, significantly limiting conventional soil-related sewage sludge recovery for the purpose of further reducing the release of pollutants into the soil. By way of a key element, the Ordinance makes provision for extensive regulations concerning the recovery of phosphorus from sewage sludge which shall apply to operators of waste water treatment plants, sewage sludge incineration facilities and sewage sludge co-incineration facilities, following the end of a transitional period lasting several years and which essentially cover the following areas: