Register the incineration of plant waste

If you wish to burn straw from harvested fields or other plant waste on agricultural or horticultural land, you must register this in good time with your local public order office.

If plant waste accumulates on your property that you cannot dispose of by rotting, leaving it lying around, putting it in the ground or composting it, you may burn it on the property where it accumulates, provided that certain conditions are met.

It is also possible to burn straw on harvested fields if you comply with the relevant requirements when burning the straw.

The regulatory authorities are responsible.

Please contact your local public order office.

• Notification of the place and period of incineration
• Description of the location and size of the site where the waste is to be incinerated
• Description of the type and quantity of waste
• Details of the supervisors (names, ages and addresses)

• Burning must take place under the constant supervision of a reliable person in dry weather.
• Burning is permitted from Monday to Friday from 8.00-16.00 and on Saturdays from 8.00-12.00.
• The straw or vegetable waste must be dry so that as little smoke as possible is produced.
• You may not use any additional substances (e.g. alcohol or fire accelerants).
• You must be able to keep the fire under control at all times and in the event of strong winds or increased smoke development, you must extinguish the fire immediately.
• Before leaving, you must ensure that the fire and embers are completely extinguished. You must immediately work the residue into the ground.

The following minimum distances must be maintained:

• 100 m from buildings, tents or storage areas
• 35 m from other buildings
• 5 m from the property boundary
• 100 m from
  • Federal highways and highway-grade trunk roads
  • to storage facilities with flammable liquids or pressurized gases
  • to companies in which explosive substances are manufactured, processed or stored
• 50 m from other public traffic routes
• 100 m from nature reserves, forests, moors and heaths
• 20 m from tree avenues, groups of trees, individual trees, protective plantings, natural monuments and unharvested grain fields

Burning within a radius of

• 4 km around the runway reference point of commercial airports or
• 3 km around the runway reference point of commercial airports, special landing sites and gliding sites

is only permitted with the consent of the local air traffic control authorities or air traffic controllers.

If flammable objects or plants are present within the minimum distances, you must create a 5 meter wide safety strip by plowing around them.

When burning straw on harvested grain fields, the following also applies:

• There must be at least two reliable supervisors on site.
• They must create a 5 meter wide safety strip around the area to be burned by plowing or milling.
• Contiguous areas over 3 hectares must be divided by safety strips 5 meters wide at intervals of 80-100 meters.
  • You may only burn the partial areas created in this way one after the other, i.e. after the previous partial area has been extinguished.

The following also applies when burning forestry waste in the forest:

• Burning is only permitted from Monday to Friday between 8.00 am and 4.00 pm. Burning is not permitted when there is an increased risk of forest fires.
• You must stack the waste for burning as far as possible in places where there is no risk of forest fires to form mounds or piles.
• When burning, you must ensure that the fire can be kept under control at all times.
• You must ensure that the smoke produced does not interfere with nearby road traffic, does not cause dangerous flying sparks and does not cause a major nuisance to the general public.
• You must keep the area around the fire free of flammable or highly flammable objects with a width of approximately one meter and cover it with earth or extinguish it with water in good time before the fire is finally extinguished.

• You register the burning informally or using the online service at least two working days in advance with your local public order office.
• You do not have to wait for confirmation.
  

Burning must be registered with the public order office at least two working days before it begins.

None

There are no fees.

In individual cases, the lower water authority may allow exceptions to the disposal of plant waste if this does not adversely affect the public good.