You decide how big your organic waste garbage can should be.
In principle, the installation of an organic waste garbage can is mandatory. If you compost your own waste, you can apply for exemption from the obligation to connect and use the bin.
You can apply for exemption from the obligation to connect and use the organic waste garbage can if you compost all organic waste completely on your own property and spread or recycle the resulting compost on the property. According to a recommendation by the Federal Environment Agency, this requires an unsealed garden area (e.g. beds and garden areas) of at least 50 square meters per resident.
Please bear in mind that home composting quickly reaches its limits with many types of waste from the kitchen (e.g. cooked food scraps, bones, nutshells, citrus fruit peel). As this waste must not be put in the residual waste garbage can, it makes sense to use a small organic waste garbage can in addition to home composting.
Do NOT use plastic bags or compostable waste bags, e.g. made from corn starch, for your organic waste in the organic waste garbage can.
These do not decompose quickly enough, jeopardize the quality of the compost and must be sorted out. Newspaper and paper bin liners are the right alternative
Use the inexpensive bio-waste paper bags (50 pcs. € 3.00) for pre-sorting in the kitchen – available in numerous citizens’ offices of the city and municipal administrations or from the district of Emsland.
Do you only have a small amount of organic waste or would you like to compost yourself in addition to the organic waste garbage can? Join forces with your neighbor – you can easily share an organic waste garbage can
“Worms” in the heat – frustration in the frost For the weeks with particularly high and particularly low temperatures, we recommend that you: Always wrap your organic waste in newspaper or paper bags before putting it in the garbage can. In the summer heat, organic waste develops an odor of its own; in winter frost, on the other hand, it quickly (and stubbornly) freezes in the garbage can.
Together with more than 75 municipal companies, the Emsland district waste management company (AWB) has been campaigning for more quality in organic waste and thus for more environmental and climate protection in the nationwide initiative https://www.wirfuerbio.de/ since 2018. Compost is produced from the organic waste and marketed. The biogas produced during fermentation is converted into electricity.
Since the nationwide campaign in September 2023, the checks have been continued regularly in the district of Emsland.
Further controls are also necessary, as organic waste is unfortunately becoming increasingly contaminated. Non-organic waste, especially plastic bags and residual waste, is found here more and more often and in far too large quantities. It is becoming increasingly difficult to produce compost from this, as the foreign matter has to be sorted out.
What many people don’t know: Within the production process of fermentation and composting plants, even compostable bags are not completely biodegradable. The decomposition time of these bags is significantly longer than the production times of our fermentation plants, which are operated by the AWB at two locations in the district of Emsland. This means that these bags – just like conventional plastic bags – are foreign substances that must be removed.
In principle, the installation of an organic waste garbage can is mandatory. You can apply for exemption from the obligation to connect and use the organic waste garbage can if you compost all organic waste completely on your own property and spread or recycle the resulting compost on the property.
According to a recommendation by the Federal Environment Agency, this requires an unsealed garden area (e.g. beds and garden areas) of at least 50 square meters per resident. Please bear in mind that home composting quickly reaches its limits with many types of waste from the kitchen (e.g. cooked food scraps, bones, nutshells, citrus fruit peel). As this waste must not be disposed of in the residual waste garbage can, it often makes sense to use an organic waste garbage can in addition to home composting.
Composting in your own garden – Take …
You need a composter that you can build yourself or buy ready-made – made of wood or plastic, with or without a lid, depending on the size of your plot and the distance to your neighbors, which you place directly in the ground and add a layer of small branches about ten centimetres thick. Then add a mixture of grass cuttings and roughly chopped branches and cover everything with a thin layer of soil. And you’re ready to go: All organic waste from the house and garden can be “disposed of”. In between, keep covering the compost with a thin layer of soil.
Organic waste from the kitchen and garden is not waste – on the contrary: compost is high-quality, nutrient-rich soil that replaces the mineral-rich fertilizer in the garden.
And composting is not difficult. However, bear in mind that home composting quickly reaches its limits with many types of waste from the kitchen (e.g. cooked food scraps, bones, nutshells, citrus peel). As this waste must not be disposed of in the residual waste garbage can, it makes sense to use an organic waste garbage can in addition to home composting.
The compost is properly placed when it doesn’t stink for the neighbors!
Microorganisms and microbes also need air to breathe. Without oxygen, the compost rots and starts to stink – to prevent this, turn the compost once a year!
Garden and green waste from private households has been accepted in the district of Emsland for over 20 years at 52 recycling centers, e.g. lawn cuttings, tree and shrub cuttings.
The materials collected at the recycling centers are processed into high-quality Emsland compost in the company’s own biomass fermentation plants in Dörpen and Lingen-Venneberg.
The materials are accepted separately according to “fine” and “coarse” at the recycling centers.
Only green and garden waste from private households is accepted at the recycling centers. Small animal litter of any kind and residues from wood processing are not included. Please dispose of these via your residual waste garbage can or, for a fee, at one of the four central landfill sites.
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Friday: 8:30 am – 12:30 pm
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