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Efficient waste management: FDP calls for cooperation in the Wetterau district!
On August 12, 2025, FDP politicians found out about municipal waste management and inter-municipal cooperation at the Wetterau disposal center.
Efficient waste management: FDP calls for cooperation in the Wetterau district!
Today, August 12, 2025, FDP district council members visited Dr. h.c. Jörg-Uwe Hahn and Peter Heidt as well as district councilor Wolfgang Patzak visited the Wetterau disposal center in Echzell-Grundschwalheim. The operations manager Dr. Jürgen Roth presented the guests with the current status of municipal waste management and informed them about the progress and planned developments up to 2029. A central topic was inter-municipal cooperation in the area of waste disposal, which was based on the last workshops with all Wetterau municipalities.
A total of several workshops have taken place since September 2022, dealing with topics such as fee systems, weighing questions and collection dates. From January 1, 2025, uniform collection rhythms for residual waste, organic waste and waste paper will apply to the entire district. This should not only ensure greater planning for municipalities and citizens, but also increase efficiency and reduce costs through better tour bundling.
On the way to better planning
The new concept aims to improve the organization of fee-based waste disposal. Abolishing the previous weighing system was seen as an important step. AWB boss Roth emphasized that the amount of waste has not increased, which is positive for sustainable development. Future inter-municipal cooperation also includes operational tasks and sovereign responsibilities, including statutes and sovereignty over fees, in order to optimize joint cooperation.
With regard to the new EU rules that affect the collection of used clothing, cooperation between municipalities is considered particularly important. The Wetterau disposal center will play a key role here, as every municipality is obliged to do so.
Legal framework for cooperation
Another important aspect is the ECJ ruling of June 4, 2020 (C-429/19), which deals with freedom of procurement law in inter-municipal cooperation. According to the ruling, this freedom only applies if there is genuine cooperation and not just payment for services. The requirements include common goals and the public interest. This makes it clear that there are high requirements for inter-municipal cooperation.
In this context, the European Court of Justice makes it clear that “simple commissioning for a fee” is not exempt from procurement. The focus must be on real cooperation, based on common strategies and of a cooperative nature. This means that public contracting authorities are allowed to carry out less than 20% of their activities on the market in order to avoid procurement law.
This legal basis ensures that inter-municipal cooperation is anchored from the perspective of public services and thus waste management can be optimized in the long term. According to the ECJ ruling, high demands are placed on the existing special-purpose agreements and the public sector is called upon to ensure that their cooperation continues to be perceived as “cooperative”.
Overall, it shows that inter-municipal cooperation in the area of waste management is not only necessary but also forward-looking. Work is being done to improve the efficiency of disposal logistics and at the same time the new legal requirements are being taken into account. The coming years up to 2029 could therefore be crucial for the future of waste management in the Wetterau.
For further information on inter-municipal cooperation in waste management, we recommend the articles from Wetterau.news, Municipalities.nrw as well as the analysis of the GGSC.