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District office threatens with a red card for organic waste sinners

2022-05-17T17:08:50.117Z


District office threatens with a red card for organic waste sinners Created: 05/17/2022, 19:00 By: Thomas Zimmerly Controversial: the bioplastic bag. First information, then control © District Office The district office of Dachau has decided on an organic waste campaign. It will start soon. The reason: Above all, there is too much plastic in the bio bins. Inform, motivate, control is the credo


District office threatens with a red card for organic waste sinners

Created: 05/17/2022, 19:00

By: Thomas Zimmerly

Controversial: the bioplastic bag.

First information, then control © District Office

The district office of Dachau has decided on an organic waste campaign.

It will start soon.

The reason: Above all, there is too much plastic in the bio bins.

Inform, motivate, control is the credo of municipal waste management.

District

– Barbara Mühlbauer-Talbi said she ripped open garbage bags, "it was frightening how much plastic was still there".

The waste consultant of the district office and her colleagues from municipal waste management took a close look at the organic waste bins in the district in 2021.

The result: 5920 tons of organic waste - that is 38 kilograms per inhabitant - was collected.

Of these, 592 tons were impurities that were sorted out and then thermally recycled at the Wurzer company.

Reason enough for the district office to start an organic waste campaign.

Inform, motivate, control, that's the credo.

Mühlbauer-Talbi presented the 16,000-euro project to the environment/traffic and district committee and explained why the district office felt compelled to act.

"Plastics put a massive strain on our environment," says the qualified biologist.

“Once released, they decompose very slowly.

They don't rot, and they become smaller and smaller particles, microplastics," says Mühlbauer-Talbi.

One speaks of microplastics or plastic particles when they are smaller than five millimeters.

Microplastics can be found in the earth, in the air, in water - "and unfortunately also in our food".

The impurities in organic waste are mainly plastic bags, packaged food and residual waste.

Among them are, and that made the district councilors sit up and take notice at the meeting, the compostable bioplastic bags, such as those given out in supermarkets.

"They must be made from at least 50 percent renewable raw materials, which means half is starch," says Mühlbauer-Talbi, but the other half are other substances, additives or components that make the material strong.

"Under normal conditions, the organic waste bags do not decompose!" says the waste consultant.

The fact is that biodegradable organic collection bags are undesirable according to the district office, but will be generally legally permitted in 2023.

However, Peter Kistler, Head of Municipal Waste Management, said: "We can rule out these bioplastic bags."

In order to improve the quality of organic waste bins, citizens should be informed and made aware.

There will also be press releases and postcards with an attentive owl printed on them.

It is advertised on posters and stickers.

In addition, tours of the recycling center are planned for school classes.

Students from the Munich Film School will shoot a short film for the internet.

Finally, the artists' association Dachau is involved, which will design pictures and posters.

Following the information and motivation follows: the control.

“In July we will conduct random checks in a certain area in Dachau.

We go through the streets in the morning before they are emptied, look in the bio bins to make sure everything is filled correctly," says Mühlbauer-Talbi.

If something doesn't fit, the owner gets a yellow tag on his bin.

If, during a further check two weeks later, there are again too many impurities in the bin, the red label follows and the bin is not emptied.

The owner then has three alternatives: he removes the impurities himself, he hires a waste disposal company to carry out the special emptying for a fee, or he packs the waste in question in residual waste bags and makes it available for the next time the residual waste bin is emptied.

"Afterwards - from September to November - we will randomly inspect the entire district," promises the waste consultant.

Dachau Mayor Florian Hartmann pointed out: "With larger systems, it is difficult to assign who contaminated the bin." There is indeed a "massive problem", according to Mühlbauer-Talbi.

“But there is an obligation to connect to the bio bin.

You can't shirk your duty that easily.” (see box).

dr

Carsten Schleh (Greens) quoted from a study by the University of Amsterdam.

The scholars there had examined human blood.

According to the Karlsfeld district council, microplastics were found in 80 percent of the samples.

Extrapolated, a maximum value of five grams of microplastic was found.

"So we sometimes eat a credit card a week!"

At the end there was a statement that made you think.

"We are an enlightened population," said Emmi Westermeier (CSU), everyone knows that plastic does not belong in the organic waste.

For the former district farmer, the campaign is apparently too far-reaching compulsory protection by the state.

It could also be easier.

Plastic sinners, she said, "just have to go to the sorting machine at Wurzer"!

57 percent have a bio bin

In the district of Dachau, 57 percent of the residents are currently connected to the bio bin.

The rest compost the organic waste in their own garden.

In the district there is an obligation to connect and use the brown organic waste bin, which is available in sizes of 80, 120 and 240 liters for moderate monthly fees of 5.35, 8 and 16 euros.

The bin size depends on the number of people.

At least ten liters of barrel volume must be available per person.

The emptying takes place every 14 days.

Exemption from the organic waste bin is possible on application if there is 25 square meters of unsealed garden space per person on your own property and you compost it yourself professionally.

You can find more current news from the district of Dachau at Merkur.de/Dachau.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-17

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