HEIDELBERG, Germany - Although the stench wafting from trash cans may overwhelm some individuals, sorting through garbage has strengthened the smell of sweet success for the Rumbling Rubbish recycling program in Heidelberg.
Marty Hanson, pollution prevention manager and Travis Vowinkel, Directorate of Public Works solid waste program manager, are catalysts of the program dedicated to reducing the amount of rubbish (unrecyclable materials) thrown away by the community.
By demonstrating how to recycle properly and sorting through trash bins to determine any cross-contamination, Rumbling Rubbish has succeeded in decreasing the size of rubbish containers in the Heidelberg housing areas, therefore lowering costs charged by the City of Heidelberg.
The program's latest project involves reducing all 1,100 liter grey rubbish containers in the housing areas to 660 liters by the end of August.
Shrinking the amount of refuse thrown away not only helps the world become a greener place, but it cultivates the greenery in the community's wallet as well.
"Doing so will save $2,000 per recycling island per year, and there are roughly 275 islands for the stairwell buildings," Hanson said, therefore saving the garrison a whopping $550,000.
"A lot of the residents are quite happy to do this, especially since they've been through things like this before," Vowinkel said.
Throughout the two-year operation, Hanson and Vowinkel have provided families, via stairwell and building coordinators, with information necessary to separate waste correctly and lower the rate of cross-contamination within the plastic, paper, compost and glass containers.
According to Hanson, the coordinators have been invaluable to the success of this project.
"We know we are burdening them with an additional task, but they have all been extremely cooperative," he said.
Whenever a stairwell fails to separate waste properly, it receives a yellow sticker and a report, pictures and a letter explaining why it earned a yellow sticker rather than a green one denoting approval.
A stairwell receives a red sticker if no improvement occurs after getting three yellow stickers, which calls for a meeting between the garrison commander and the stairwell or building coordinator to solve the problem.
Before the meeting commences, however, the solid waste team meets with the families involved to try and resolve the problem that led to a red sticker.
"We give any support needed, and so far it has always worked. We've never had an island that stayed at red and never got better," Hanson said.
Community members living in housing can prevent their rubbish containers from overflowing by making sure to place every unwanted item in the correct bin, especially since the German government does not charge money for picking up recyclable materials.
With the community's cooperation, "we're achieving what we set out to do, to save money," Vowinkel said.
"There are a lot of success stories in this garrison. A lot of people truly want to recycle and have stepped up to the plate," Hanson said.
Although separate from the Rumbling Rubbish program, one achievement belongs to the hospital on Nachtrichten Kaserne.
"They used to have five 5-cubic-meter trash containers emptied four days a week," Hanson said. "Now they're down to three and emptied only two days a week, because they're separating their trash more."
While a variety of colors may confuse and startle those unfamiliar to the world of recycling, the Rumbling Rubbish program exists to offer assistance.
After all "we're here to help," Vowinkel said.
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