Should S1 waste from an S2 plant always be autoclaved in the S2 plant?

The background to the decision was an S2 laboratory in which only S1 work was to be carried out on two of four microbiological safety cabinets (MSW). Nevertheless, the ancillary provisions of the decision stipulated that all waste generated in the S2 facility was to be autoclaved under S2 conditions. An appeal against these ancillary provisions was filed with the Administrative Court on the grounds that precautions had been taken to prevent the mixing of waste from genetic engineering work at different safety levels. The only relevant safety measures to be taken were the safety level to which the genetic engineering work was assigned, regardless of the facility in which the work was carried out. Therefore, simplified waste disposal was sufficient for waste resulting from S1 work in accordance with Section 13 (2) of the GenTSV. The Frankfurt Administrative Court (VG Frankfurt, judgment of October 8, 2020 - 2 K 54441 17.F -, juris) did not agree with this. It justified its decision by stating that, contrary to the plaintiff's opinion, the specific requirements for wastewater and waste treatment should be based on the safety level of the respective genetic engineering facility and not on the genetic engineering work carried out within the facility in the individual case. Even if it was argued that precautions had been taken to prevent the mixing of waste from S1 and S2 work, this did not constitute an error of discretion on the part of the authority, as this did not contradict the provision of Section 13 (3) of the GenTSV. Section 13 (3) of the GenTSV does not stipulate a differentiation of the ancillary provisions according to the work carried out in the newly registered S2 facility. Numerous S2 facilities across Germany in which S1 work is carried out will now have to comply with this case law, which will certainly have a signaling effect. A deviation would only be possible if another authority or possibly another court came to a different assessment and the latter could possibly lead to a higher court decision.