As of: March 27, 2024, 5:58 a.m
By: Josef Ametsbichler
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Well-rehearsed duo: While Anton Soyer (50) picks up the garden waste with a grabber from the tractor, Peter Grabmaier (37) helps with the pitchfork.
Farmers like her are responsible for collecting garden waste across the district.
© Stefan Roßmann
The Ebersberg district takes a special approach to collecting garden waste: farmers do the job, thanks to which citizens only have to carry branches, daxes and the old Christmas tree to the side of the road.
It's a job where you get annoyed every now and then - but it's also fun.
Ebersberg
– Peter Grabmaier smokes the last puff of his cigarette and uses hardened fingertips to twirl the embers onto the ground in front of him.
He then stores the smoked out filter in the pocket of his work pants.
Anton Soyer nods to him from the Bulldog.
“Soil is our most important production factor,” he says.
Neither of the two farmers would think of carelessly throwing a piece of plastic onto the ground.
“We work with nature,” says Soyer.
Dozens of farming teams collect bulky garden waste from doorsteps twice a year
On this day, the duo is standing with their tractor trailer in the middle of the Friedenseiche residential area in Ebersberg.
Grabmaier, 37, from near Aßling and Soyer, 50, from near Ebersberg form one of dozens of farmer teams for garden waste collection.
Twice a year, in spring and autumn, this service is included in the garbage fees for citizens at no extra charge.
The smoking break is over.
Anton Soyer stopped the tractor trailer in front of a garage entrance and turned around in the seat.
He picks up cherry laurel, daxes and a brown-dried Christmas tree with the trailer's gripper arm, while Peter Grabmaier helps from the sidewalk.
“If you do all of this by hand, you’ll be exhausted for the night,” Grabmaier snorts and swings the pitchfork.
He enjoys the job, he says.
Not just because of the extra income, but also because of the teamwork.
“And a thank you feels really good,” he says and smiles.
It's time to get involved: Not everything can be picked up with the machine.
Peter Grabmaier helps.
© Stefan Roßmann
The use of the gripper: A touch of “Bet, that..?”
His older colleague has been collecting garden waste for decades, which farmers have been collecting for a good 40 years, as he explains.
“We are the cheapest and have the technology.” He uses the metal claw to grab a plastic basket of green waste from the sidewalk.
It is reminiscent of one of the legendary excavator bets from “Wetten,dass..?”, as he carefully places it with the heavy gripper, turns it over and finally empties it into the trailer.
Actually, only paper bags are allowed, or the material must be bundled with decomposable string.
“We leave some things behind,” says Peter Grabmaier about more serious violations.
And Anton Soyer adds: “But we’re not Dipferlscheißer.” When Anton Soyer maneuvers the plastic basket back onto the sidewalk, crumbs of earth rain down on Peter Grabmaier.
“Hopefully you’ll comb my hair too!” the freshly showered man complains back in a good mood.
They have already experienced a lot.
Plastic flower pots hidden in the tangle of branches.
Christmas trees complete with baubles and tinsel.
Once a pile of green waste was so cleverly stacked around a fire hydrant that it was hidden from view.
“We tweaked that,” says Soyer, rolling his eyes.
He could have done without the 7,000 euros in damages.
And the plastic that is hyped up is bad because it doesn't rot in the compost yards and, in the worst case, ends up in the farmers' fields.
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The strange habit with pantyhose
The fact that someone can't distinguish whether a line is biodegradable or not is a gift.
But the thing about the tights doesn't get into the farmers' heads: it happens again and again that the torn branches are tied together with discarded tights, which then get caught up in the machinery.
Unsexy up to that point.
Anton Soyer has the schedule.
There it is noted down to the minute where and when the duo worked in Ebersberg.
© Josef Ametsbichler
Garden waste elsewhere has to be carted to the compost yard by the citizens themselves or ends up chopped up in the green bin or, in the worst case, in the residual waste.
“Many people are grateful, especially the older ones, that they don’t have to move the stuff themselves,” says Grabmaier.
“The Ebersberg district is taking a good approach,” says Soyer.
The Ebersberg district is taking a good approach
Anton Soyer
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.)
Even if the requirements and documentation requirements increase here, he is convinced that the farmers' disposal method is more efficient than if a disposal company took over.
In a file folder they write down exactly which street they took and at what time, in case anyone has something to complain about.
No matter whether it rains or snows: the farmers pick up
The team only drives the loaded branches a few streets where a trailer and a container are waiting, which are collected in the evening and emptied in the nearest compost yard, in the case of Ebersberg this is Tulling in the municipality of Steinhöring.
This time there is less gathering than usual, probably because the weather was too bad for extensive gardening, Peter Grabmaier suspects.
“For us farmers, the weather isn’t really an issue,” he says.
The sun is shining from the sky above him and he has already experienced completely different garden waste collections.
“It’s driving,” he says firmly.
“It doesn’t matter whether it rains or snows.”
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