Art project in Dasing becomes WEEE collection point

As part of an art project, more than 50 students have contributed to the future of the recycling collection point in the district of Aichach-Friedberg.

District of Aichach-Friedberg

The upcycling project was created in the summer of 2021 in cooperation with the installation artist Markus Heinsdorff and the municipal waste management of the district of Aichach-Friedberg and the students of class 3b and 5a of the elementary and middle school Dasing. It addresses the problem of plastic waste and its recycling. However, the model project primarily serves as a test phase for the other collection points in the district in order to achieve an optimized collection of old electrical appliances, lithium-ion batteries and also goods for reuse at the municipal level across the board.
 
An optimized collection of resources especially from the stream of waste electrical equipment (WEEE) is required for many reasons. On the one hand, there is the unsatisfactory recycling rate for WEEE and the associated high losses of resources. On the other hand, there is the urgent need for a more careful collection of battery-powered waste electrical equipment, especially lithium-ion batteries, in order to improve fire prevention.
 
The district of Aichach-Friedberg has already been in the process of making its municipal collection points more efficient since 2018, giving occupational health and safety the importance it deserves. Against this background, the system of collection points in the district was completely revised and also examined for the optimization of the collection of waste electrical equipment with batteries, or lithium-ion batteries.
 

The fact that this gives the employees of the recycling center new tasks and increased responsibility is consciously discussed with those involved in the model project. As a result, the procedures for sorting the WEEE into the collection containers were jointly defined and rehearsed.
 
The design of the shed, which was also implemented by the artist Markus Heinsdorff, attracted the special attention of the press, politicians and visitors to the recycling center, proving that this was a successful model project.
 
More than 50 students were involved in a workshop to design the gabions filled with plastic scraps. The students, for their part, carry the uniqueness of the new collection facility into their families, and each time they visit the recycling center, they remind us how collaborative the realization of this task was.


In order to motivate the almost 100 employees of the other collection points and to involve them in the development of the new system, a professional educational film was made under the motto "We can do it!", which emphasizes the future processes and the occupational health and safety affected by them.
 
Currently, the dimensions of the facility, the design, the procedures and the costs are being reviewed to see to what extent this model project can serve as a basis for the other 12 collection points in the district or what changes need to be made.

This will be followed by a review of the extent to which an increase in volumes of WEEE, batteries and the newly included fraction "preparation for reuse" has been achieved or can be achieved in the future throughout the county.

 
Link to the film in German language.
 
Contact:
Michaela Stadelmeyer
District of Aichach-Friedberg
Municipal waste management
Münchener Straße 9 | 86551 Aichach (postal address)
Telephone: 08251 86 167 - 13
E-mail:    Michaela.Stadelmeyer@lra-aic-fdb.de
Website: https://abfallwirtschaft.lra-aic-fdb.de/