At the latest with the entry into force of the Recycling and Waste Management Act (KrW- / AbfG) in 1996, a situation was reached in the area of waste disposal that the ecological objectives of this act - increasing segregation and recycling of waste and thus sustainable conservation of resources - are accompanied by an increasing traffic development causing environmental damage.

In the area of disposal logistics, numerous transports have emerged, which have been created by the idea of resource conservation, but which are inefficient from a traffic logistical point of view. An example of this is the extremely high percentage of empty runs, which is also related to the fact that usually monofractions are transported and the disposition of these transports are highly specialized solutions of the individual companies.

A combination of different partners from the areas of supply and disposal to a network would significantly contribute to reducing these empty runs drastically. In particular, a rural-structured area, such as the area in Lower Saxony and the surrounding area of Bremen which are considered in this research project, is particularly suitable for such an exploration, since here are, due to the very low density of waste producers and waste converters, large distances with correspondingly significant savings potential.