Munich: Five districts get a yellow bag or yellow bin – Munich

From the beginning of 2024, Munich residents who live in parts of Schwabing, Allach, the Westend, in Lehel or in Solln will no longer have to carry their packaging waste to recycling points. The city wants to test the yellow system in these five areas for three years. “We are currently producing so much plastic waste in Munich in just one hour that you could fill the entire Bavaria with it,” says Mayor Verena Dietl (SPD). “And after a day the Siegestor would be full.” The aim must therefore be to reduce packaging waste – and at the same time to collect it in such a way that it can then be recycled as best as possible.

For this purpose, a pilot test is starting in parts of the city where there are few container collection points, a new collection system instead of the previous delivery system. In order to cover as wide a range as possible, two quarters with predominantly single-family houses were selected, two with multi-storey residential buildings and a central quarter with dense development. All five areas have around 12,000 inhabitants – this is the best way to compare them.

Three systems are tested. Parts from Schwabing and Allach are given a yellow bin, with the Munich model featuring a black body with a yellow lid. Only plastic packaging and tin cans are allowed in, i.e. waste that companies commissioned by the dual system are responsible for disposing of. In Munich, these are currently the companies Remondis and Wittmann.

It is different in the Westend and in Solln. A recycling bin is being tried out there. In addition to packaging, consumers can also throw so-called “non-packaging of the same material” into this container. An old toothbrush, for example, the rubber duck or a broken pan. Things that are also made of plastic or metal, but previously belonged in the household waste. And because the waste management company (AWM) is responsible for normal waste, AWM and Duales System in Solln share the emptying of the recycling bins. The color of the bins shows who is in charge of which roads: the AWM bins are completely yellow, those of the dual system are black and yellow.

The test households get all bins and sacks free of charge

The large 1100 liter containers are removed every two weeks, as are the small 120 or 240 liter containers for recyclables. The small yellow bins should only be emptied once a month. Municipal officer Kristina Frank (CSU) is particularly proud of the “full service”: the garbage men take the large bins and the containers in Solln looked after by the AWM directly from the stand and bring them back there again. For free. “That,” says Frank, “is unique in Germany.” For a fee that has yet to be clarified, this service can also be used for the small bins to be emptied by the dual system.

And what happens in Lehel? Munich’s most expensive district gets the yellow sack on a trial basis. Every two weeks, the residents have to put the filled sacks in front of the front door to be picked up. “We want to see: do the sacks withstand wind and animals? And how do the people of Munich react when the sacks are on the sidewalk?” explains the municipal officer, whose house the AWM belongs to.

Frank is aware that many Munich residents will find it a “downer” to have to add a fourth yellow bin to the existing black, brown and blue bins in their already cramped bins. But the households in the test areas do not bear any costs for the additional offer. Because the bins are provided. It is unclear how the garbage fees will develop in the long term, by 2025 they want to have 30 percent less garbage in Munich. “The previous system will no longer work anyway.”

The ecological balance is also unclear. The AWM wants to recycle the plastic waste regionally, but the dual system disposes of it as far away as Turkey. “But we as a municipality can’t do anything about that,” says Frank, “that’s a matter for the federal legislature.”

She personally believes that the recycling bin will work best of all models. However, she does not dare to predict whether the depot system or the bin will ultimately work more efficiently. “Because it can happen that everything possible is thrown in the bin to save on the fees for residual waste.” In any case, the frequently criticized situation at the recycling islands will probably hardly change as a result of the yellow system. Because the people of Munich must continue to throw their glass in the containers provided for this purpose.

source site