Kochel / Großweil - Around 25 volunteers freed both the water and the banks of the accumulated rubbish on the Kochelsee and on the Loisach.
Light blue plastic bags are stored on the loading area of the pickup.
In it everything that has been found in nature but should not have been found.
Plastic bottles, plastic scraps, styrofoam.
But they are not the only garbage bags that were filled that day.
Volunteers moved to the Kochelsee and Loisach for the fourth time for the "Garbage-free Loisach" project to clear rubbish from the water and from the banks.
However, the river is very stubborn.
In the morning a foot troop paddled the banks around the Kochelsee, a river troop swung themselves on SUP boards in the morning near Großweil and paddled part of the Loisach.
For a couple of hours, “Müllfrei Loisach”, a project by the Penzberg company Sunnawind, which is supported by the Pure Water For Generations association and the water guards in Kochel and Walchensee, was looking for clues, looking for the disturbing traces that the Left behind in nature, be it intentionally or unintentionally.
At lunchtime, the hunt groups, around 25 dedicated people, meet at the festival site in Kochel for a well-deserved snack.
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The river troop started in Großweil: the helpers paddled down the Loisach on SUP boards.
© Organizer
Construction yard with good preparatory work
Not quite as much rubbish was waiting for the group, who wandered around the lake in trekking shoes and with plastic bags. Julia Wolff, who helped organize the Ramadama campaign, smiles shortly before the first snack that the building yard has already done good preparatory work. That is why the team concentrated on the "fairly inaccessible areas," explains Wolff. But not the reed areas, so as not to disturb breeding birds. Above all, flotsam was collected on the beach, says Wolff when she stands in front of her dark blue pickup at the fairground in Kochel. Garbage bags pile up on the loading area. There are mainly plastic parts in the bags, foils and bottles, but also “quite a lot of broken glass,” says Wolff. And they even found a beanbag. Indeed,There is such a seat cushion, a gray monster, bedded on the blue garbage bags.
“We're doing this for the fourth time,” says Wolff.
In the meantime she has the feeling that not only has acceptance for the Ramadama campaign increased, but also that “the people have become more careful”.
And that is exactly the aim of collecting, letting people develop a certain sensitivity for the topic.
Participant Sanna Bürgin has long since been sensitized. She has also been at the start the previous times and cannot and does not want to leave rubbish lying around in her private life.
After so much searching, she seems to have developed a seventh sense.
When she's outside, walking through nature, her garbage inevitably catches the eye, the “Easter egg effect”, she laughs.
Strong current
After a few years of use, this Easter egg effect is likely to have occurred with André Wacke as well. The Sunnawind owner is just rolling his van up to the fairground, parks and gets out. "It was cool," he grins. It was decided in advance that only well-equipped, trained and experienced paddlers would take part in the action on the river because of the high water level. A wise choice. “The current was super strong,” says Wacke. A lot of water, a lot of force. Finds were made anyway. Not a submerged shopping cart or a soaked sofa, as in the past, “but two bikes,” says Wacke. And something very special. Wacke grins, runs to his car, opens the trunk. The water sports specialist holds an ancient helmet in his hand, time has visibly gnawed at the rusty part, it is littered with holes,seems to crumble at any moment.
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The helpers found a lot of plastic waste, two bicycles and a lot of sanitary towels.
© Organizer
On the other hand, Wacke does not seem surprisingly surprised when he thinks about what he has collected in the past few hours, “a lot of plastic waste”, he says, “and I don't like to say it: lots of sanitary towels”.
On the other hand, another finding was more gratifying: one had encountered "noticeably less" silo bale film.
“Something seems to have happened,” says Wacke happily.
Ramadama year after year
The fact that the Ramadama activists draw attention to the garbage problem, without pointing fingers, but with gripping hands, also seems to please the communities on the lake and river. Wolff emphasizes the good cooperation with the communities, from Eschenlohe to Ohlstadt to Großweil and Kochel, and is grateful. The community of Ohlstadt even wanted to pay a snack supplement, but this was not necessary, a local butcher already wanted to buy a snack. When Wolff talks about it, employees of the Kocheler Bauhof place beer benches for snacks on the fairground at the same moment. Of course, they didn't want to turn down the bid. This should now benefit the water rescue service for a new boat shed, so Wolff. After all, the water rescuers accompanied the action on the Loisach this year as well.
Next year they want to carry out the action again, again at the end of July. Generally one strives for a regular rhythm, Ramadama year after year. As long as there is no more garbage, Wolff smiles and seems to know very well that this request will probably not end anytime soon.
