WE NEED YOU urgently, and only a few want to do their back-breaking job: our garbage collectors.
YOUR DAILY Companions are dirt and stench. But do we appreciate that? Rather not. We honk and yell when the people in orange block the road to collect our trash. “Every tour is a new challenge, especially in rush-hour traffic and narrow inner cities,” says driver Sascha Schroeder from Wetter. He and his colleagues from AHE are a close-knit team and can rely on each other without words. Schroeder is 40 years old and has been the king of the garbage truck for 14 years. He has a sunny disposition and the right thick skin when someone honks his horn: “The drivers should avoid the showdown with me, because I’ll win with my 26-ton truck anyway,” he says with a mischievous smile. His driving skills are challenged anew every day.
Support for the garbage collectors
And then there is the unmistakable smell of organic waste in summer. “You have to go through that, nothing helps,” says the garbage worker. His trick: “Just think about the beautiful things in life.” At the AHE, which is responsible for waste disposal in almost the entire EN district, there are 52 drivers and 30 waste workers. Many employees have been in the team for around 15 years. What does Sascha Schroeder want from his “customers”? “That people put out the residual or organic waste bins by reaching to the side of the road. If everyone then thought something along and didn’t hide the bins behind parked cars, it would be almost perfect.”
Organic waste – gold from the bin
Even though we’re really good in the Ennepe-Ruhr district: there’s still more to come! According to the Federal Environment Agency, the proportion of organic waste in residual waste is almost 40 percent. That is an enormous amount of material that should end up in the organic waste bin. Organic waste is a great and easy way to help protect the climate and save money too. Because there is a lot of power in organic waste. Depending on the type of processing, it can provide compost and fertilizer, but it can also be converted into heat and electricity using a biogas plant. Sounds great and it is. Because the organic waste from our region is fermented into biogas at the AHE in a plant in Witten-Bebbelsdorf. Two combined heat and power plants convert the gas into electricity for 2,500 households and heat. In this way, around 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide are avoided every year.
Would you like to read more exciting information from the region? You can find them here: www.avu.de/magazin
About the AVU:
The AVU has its core area as an energy service provider and water supplier in seven out of nine cities in the Ennepe-Ruhr district. For over 110 years we have been closely connected to the cities, companies and people in the region. For AVU, energy is more than the supply of electricity, natural gas and water at fair market prices. The focus is on services relating to the economical and ecological use of energy.