The city administration wrote to landlords and also pointed out the different providers of reusable systems.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Avoiding rubbish and doing something good at the same time: two initiatives by the CSU in the Unterschleißheim city council have largely come to nothing, despite lofty goals. For example, no one took up the municipal offer made to local landlords on the initiative of the CSU to provide financial support for the introduction of reusable tableware for six months. The CSU shipwrecked even faster with its second concern, attaching so-called pledge rings to waste containers or lampposts. The city council’s environmental committee rejected this by a majority on Tuesday evening. The subsidy program for reusable crockery in the catering trade will be extended again.
Many people in Unterschleißheim are aware that the mountains of rubbish are growing and that things cannot go on as before. The SPD city councilor Sybille Bichlmeier, simply because she found the conditions unbearable, took up the cause of the fight against littering last summer and went out not least to collect a lot of packaging waste and bottles. On World Cleanup Day in September, more than 700 Unterschleißheim residents collected rubbish within a short period of time. The middle school was busy. 2.2 tons of waste were collected: starting with car tires, dog waste bags, packaging waste, bottles and cans.
Against this background, the CSU said that switching to reusable plates for the delivery service in the catering industry, which had grown significantly during the pandemic, could be a good idea. Especially since many innkeepers had already switched to reusable cups in 2019. But as City Hall is now saying, there has been practically no response to the funding system that has been in effect since July 1st. They even wrote to 50 restaurants, bistros and cafés. Only the branch of a global chain replied and pointed out that they wanted to introduce an in-house reusable system that was still to be developed.
There are deposit rings in Karlsruhe. The Unterschleißheim town hall has tested different systems.
(Photo: Uli Deck/dpa)
From the point of view of the CSU, deposit rings, in which returnable bottles can be placed instead of throwing them away wildly in the bin, could also help to strengthen the reusable cycle. The CSU argued in its application that the bottles would be separated from the actual waste immediately. The bottles would then get into the recycling process more easily and streets and squares such as the town hall square would be less littered. Last but not least, everyone who “collects deposits out of personal circumstances” is protected. No one would have to reach into trash cans to fish out returnable bottles.
In the past few months, the administration in the town hall has examined where deposit rings could be attached and determined locations. Considerations were made as to how this could be financed and even fundraising was considered. But the work was in vain. The Environment Committee rejected by a vote of seven to four to pursue the idea with the pledge rings. The program to support reusable items in the catering trade has been extended by six months until the end of July 2022. 5000 euros are available for this.