BSR’s MHKW Ruhleben Waste-to-energy power station with an annual capacity of 520,000 tonnes of waste forms the centrepiece of Berlin’s waste disposal. It went into operation in 1967, and has since been successively extended and refitted many times. With the com­missioning of the new Line A in September 2012 (together with the decommissioning of Lines 5 to 8), the MHKW now has a total of five incineration lines (Line A and Lines 1 to 4). It operates in a continuous three-shift system.

The waste management strategy for Land Berlin also addresses the high-quality recycling of building materials. Every year, about 1 million tonnes of recycling concrete is generated in Berlin. An on-going investigation of the environmental and climate impacts of mate­rial flows in Berlin has shown, among other things, that the utilisation of recycled con­crete in the building industry could make an important contribution to increasing resource efficiency.