Germany’s municipal sewage treatment plants generate some two million tons of dry sewage sludge annually, with the proportion of thermally treated sewage sludge increasing from 31.5 per cent in 2004 to more than 54 % in 2011. Sludge, which is usually incinerated or used as agricultural fertilizer, contains a whole series of harmful substances that complicate the task of sludge management. But sludge also contains a number of nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. Hence the goal of sewage sludge management is to remove sludge pollutants while retaining sludge nutrients. Sewage sludge undergoes thermal recycling at facilities such as sewage sludge mono-incineration plants, cement plants and coal fired power plants. Sewage sludge utilization for farming purposes has plateaued of late (2006 to 2011) at around 29 %, an evolution attributable to more stringent quality standards for sewage sludge. However, sewage sludge is set to take on greater importance as a raw material, mainly due to the increased concentrations of phosphorous it contains. This pamphlet discusses the potential offered by sewage sludge and the ways it can be used sustainably. The pamphlet also describes the current status of sewage sludge management in Germany, with particular emphasis on the extent to which sludge use as a fertilizer can be reduced without foregoing phosphorous and other sludge nutrients. Over the next one to two decades, Germany needs to wean itself away from using sewage sludge for farming and at the same time efficiently leveraging the potential for using sewage sludge as a low cost fertilizer.