The end of the year and with it the closure of the district’s own organic waste fermentation plant in the Brunnthal district of Kirchstockach is getting closer. The nine employees of the operator Ganser disposal have a permanent job with other companies from January 1st. However, the District Office is still unable to find out in detail what will happen in future to the waste on the one hand and to the 25-year-old plant on the Ganser Group’s premises on the other. Apparently, however, the organic waste is to be processed by various companies in the future, which only partially pick it up in Kirchstockach.
When asked, District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) informed his press spokeswoman that he fully understood that the citizens “want to know how things will continue on the site and how the organic waste from the Munich district will be recycled in the next few years”. For legal reasons, however, it is not possible for the district office to provide information on an ongoing award procedure, which “has to be carried out in a non-public procedure”.
It goes without saying that the plant was not dealt with in the summer of 2021, but has been taking care of its condition intensively for many years, upgrading it technically and exploring all options for continuing to operate it in the future. In the meantime, however, this would only be possible with disproportionately high investments and neither financially nor environmentally sensible, especially since it would lead to a very high increase in disposal prices and consequently in garbage fees. The district council has therefore dealt with alternatives for the period from January 2022 on and has been “for some time seriously thinking about long-term solutions for innovative, sustainable recycling of organic waste, including the possible production of green hydrogen, and is also doing this when considering other possible uses of today’s company premises “, said the district administrator.
Energy and business park
The lease term of the current site ends in 2035. But the Ganser Group has still reserved 18,000 square meters of land north of the current facility for the district, which is outside the water protection area. Alternatives to the current system could be created on it, which of course requires the consent of all parties involved. This opens up perspectives, especially since Matthias Ganser is still pursuing the vision of a regenerative “Energy and Business Park Kirchstockach”.
What is more urgent, however, is the question of what will become of the district’s banana peels and green waste when its only organic waste fermentation plant is shut down. Göbel emphasizes that neither he, nor his administration, nor the district council wanted “from the whole district of organic waste to be driven to Kirchstockach, reloaded there and then driven off again”, with an emphasis on “from the whole district”. Publicly available documents show that the award is divided into four lots. Thus, a different solution is apparently being sought for parts of the district. Further information is not available as long as the award procedure is ongoing.
Apparently, applicants for the largest lot, i.e. the most garbage, have found each other. How many there are and where they are sitting cannot be found out. Large waste disposal companies such as Remondis refer to the ongoing non-public procedure. As is well known, according to the District Office in Kirchstockach, there is no interim storage, but instead “the biowaste delivered by the municipalities is transferred directly to vehicles of the future recycling company. These then take the biowaste for actual recycling”. But not the rubbish of the entire district.
The further transport of the garbage creates more traffic, complained a local resident at the Brunnthal citizens’ meeting and expressly objected to it. But the question also arises as to how the end of the 25-year-old organic waste fermentation plant will look like. The operator, Ganser waste disposal, claims that it has no expertise in decommissioning such a plant. That is a task for specialist companies. The district office did not answer the question on Monday whether it is already looking for such. It merely stated: “The operation in its current state will end on December 30, 2021. To date, no decision has been made on how to continue to use the system.”