In Germany, like many other countries, environmental pollution is not distributed equally, or proportionately, over social groups and regions; e.g.:

• concentration of factories, power plants, fuel depots, refineries in industrial estates, surrounded by social housing, allotment gardens, etc.
• construction of new motorways, highways, railway tracks, high-voltage powerlines across low-income, not high-income areas
• direction of flight departures and approaches in such a way that upper-class neighborhoods are not, or hardly, touched
• siting of dangerous installations, e.g., hazardous or nuclear waste deposits, in neglected areas, where lack of jobs increases acceptance by the population.

With few exceptions, the German debate about environmental pollution has focused on risks for man and nature ("old environmental problem"), not socially discriminating distribution of such risks ("new environmental problem"). Still, the second problem shows in many cases - e.g., Gorleben (a nuclear waste site), "Bombodrom" (a bomb-releasing area), Horno (the latest community to be dredged away for brown coal extraction), further enlargement of the huge Frankfurt airport, concentration of pollution at the "chemical triangle" near Bitterfeld. But contrary to evidence, these incidents are mostly regarded as socially indifferent conflicts around siting and usage. Thus, environmental injustice exists in Germany, but is not yet seen as a specific problem.

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