Translation of "of which"

Question

23.5 billion kilograms of household-waste every year, of which 9.4 billion is recycled.

I wasn't really sure of the word for of which. My instinct was von denen, but a dictionary says woran.

Im Vereinigten Königreich, gibts jedes Jahr 23,5 Milliarde Kilo Hausmüll, von denen 9,4 Milliarden recycelt wird.

Is that right? Am I right in sending wird to the end of the sentence?

So after reading the responses, is this the best way to phrase?

Im Großbritannien fallen jedes Jahr 23,5 Milliarden Tonnen Hausmüll an, wovon 9,4 Milliarden recycelt wird.

Answer 1

The best way to phrase is:

In Großbritannien fallen jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll an, wovon 9,4 Millionen (Tonnen) recycelt werden.

The two verbs both refer to n billions kilograms/ n million tons, so they have to be plural! (see: "Tonnen Müll" plural oder singular)

You could also say: (but "wovon" is the better choice)

In Großbritannien fallen jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll an, von denen 9,4 Millionen recycelt werden.

Some more explanations:

• the missing verb in your English reference: "anfallen" (accrue) is better than "geben" (there are), because it refers to the active process of producing trash.

• Großbritannien; UK; Vereiniges Königreich... all mean different things. Check your original English reference.

• 23.5 billions (23500000000000) in German are "23,5 Milliarden". So it is either "23,5 Milliarden Kilogramm" or "23,5 Millionen Tonnen"

Answer 2

There are several ways to phrase it. Here are my suggestions:

• In Großbritannien fallen jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll an, wovon 9,4 Millionen (Tonnen) recycelt werden.
• In Großbritannien fallen jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll an, von denen 9,4 Millionen recycelt werden.

Note you can replace Großbritanien with Vereinigte Köngireich, but this is less in use by saying for example:

Im Vereinigten Königreich fallen jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll an, wovon 9,4 Millionen (Tonnen) recycelt werden.

A simpler way to express the same sentence (this time expressed in kilogramms instead of tonnes) is:

Im Vereinigten Königreich gibt es jedes Jahr 23,5 Milliarden Kilo Hausmüll, von denen 9,4 Milliarden recycelt werden.

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A bit off-topic but maybe helpful:
One could also express it with "zusammen kommen" or "sich sammeln" ...:

• Im Vereinigten Königreich kommen jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll zusammen, wovon 9,4 Millionen (Tonnen) recycelt werden.

• Im Vereinigten Königreich sammeln sich jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll, wovon 9,4 Millionen (Tonnen) recycelt werden.

• Im Vereinigten Königreich werden jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll gesammelt, wovon 9,4 Millionen (Tonnen) recycelt werden.

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But as you are rather looking for a translation for "of which": One could also use "aus denen" instead of "von denen" and "woraus" instead of "wovon"!

• Im Vereinigten Königreich fallen jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll an, von denen 9,4 Millionen (Tonnen) recycelt werden.
  
• Im Vereinigten Königreich fallen jedes Jahr 23,5 Millionen Tonnen Hausmüll an, wovon 9,4 Millionen (Tonnen) recycelt werden.

Answer 3

The particular points you asked about are almost correct: von denen is pretty much the best choice except for being plural, wird belongs at the end of the dependent sentence, and "Kilo" is in accusative, not genitive.

However, there are other errors and a bit of ambiguity. First, the source phrase doesn't have a verb, so adding one in the German translation is inappropriate without knowing the context. (It seems you didn't post the entire source, because there's no mention of the UK there either.)

I'll assume the source is "In the UK, there's 23.5 billion kilograms of household-waste ..." since that fits the translation best.

The translation is

Im Vereinigten Königreich gibt es jedes Jahr 23,5 Milliarden Kilo Hausmüll, von dem 9,4 Milliarden recycelt wird.

Note:

• No comma after "Im Vereinigten Königreich".
• Gibts or rather gibt's is a colloquial contraction and inappropriate for formal writing.
• Milliarden needs to be plural.
• Kilo is not put into plural because it doesn't stand alone but rather modifies Hausmüll, which is uncountable.
• Since it is uncountable, the appropriate form to use in the dependent sentence is singular. Although plural (von denen combined with werden at the end) would not raise many eyebrows, singular is more correct.

More idiomatically, though, you wouldn't write gibt es at all; instead you would probably write "Das Vereinigte Königreich produziert jedes Jahr ...".