On average, 900 tons of contaminants end up in organic waste every year, which have to be sorted out at great expense. That is the equivalent of 45,000 empties. One major problem is plastic bags, including compostable bin liners, which do not decompose at all or decompose too slowly.
So far, the bioscouts have been out and about in 24 towns and municipalities in the district and have checked the contents of around 24,000 organic waste garbage cans. They have been in Affalterbach, Asperg, Benningen, Bietigheim-Bissingen, Bönnigheim, Freiberg, Großbottwar, Ingersheim, Korntal-Münchingen, Kornwestheim, Löchgau, Freudental, Marbach, Möglingen, Murr, Oberstenfeld, Remseck (partially), Sachsenheim, Schwieberdingen, Sersheim, Tamm as well as in some districts of Ludwigsburg and Vaihingen/Enz.
The proportion of controlled organic waste garbage cans in the total stock is 21 percent. "This means that one in five organic waste garbage cans in the Ludwigsburg district has already been inspected by the organic waste scouts," says AVL Managing Director Tilman Hepperle. Incorrectly filled bins were spotted several times.
The majority of the garbage cans (75 percent) were correctly filled and marked with a green band. However, one in four organic waste garbage cans was also found to be incorrectly filled. These were mainly biowaste packaged in supposedly compostable and conventional plastic bags. These organic waste garbage cans were marked with a yellow band. At the same time, the affected households and residential complexes received an information letter with additional instructions on how to fill organic waste garbage cans correctly.
AVL has received predominantly positive feedback from the population about the activities of the bioscouts in the municipalities. It is also positive that the follow-up checks of the yellow-labeled, incorrectly filled organic waste garbage cans show an improvement in filling in most cases. A sorting analysis of the organic waste collected from the Ludwigsburg district has now shown that the proportion of contaminants has fallen from 2.7 to 1.4 percent by weight. This corresponds to a decrease of 48 percent.
What is particularly noticeable is the large decrease in the proportion of kitchen biowaste packed in bags, especially food waste. While around 80 percent of this waste was still packed in bags during the last sorting, only around half of it (52 percent) is still packed in bags according to the current survey. In contrast, the proportion of biowaste packed in paper bags has increased from 13% to 72%. "These results clearly show the impact of the work of the bioscouts as well as the information materials and letters," says Hepperle happily. "We are on the right track. However, the checks will also be necessary in the future in order to further minimize the proportion of contaminants."
