Reduce, reuse and recycle

Every three months or so in most German cities, the sidewalks are suddenly filled with old furniture, pieces of wood, appliances - anything and everything that has been filling people's closets, basements and attics. The next morning the garbage collectors come and take whatever is there away. It's known as hard rubbish or bulky waste and it's anything that's too big to fit into the regular trash can.

Before the rubbish trucks turn up, many of the reusable items are collected by professional recycling gangs - or even by locals out looking for treasures. But many useable items end up in the compressor and eventually the landfill or incinerator.

"I often ask myself: 'How can people throw such things away?'" said Paul Renz, one of the council workers responsible for collecting Karlsruhe's thousands of tons of bulk waste every year. That's a staggering amount for the relatively small city in Germany's southwest which has a population of just 280,000.

The piles can also be an eyesore. Glass can break and the trash can get scattered. So now the city council in Karlsruhe, like many others in Germany, want to change the way they do things. They want to put a stop to the practice of a whole neighborhood putting out their bulky waste on the same day. Instead, individuals will have to ring up and ask for a truck to be sent. This will make the streets cleaner, but it will also make it much harder for people to search through the rubbish for pre-loved treasures.

As a result, even fewer items will be reused and even more will end up in landfills and incineration plants. The council though has come up with an idea they hope will reduce the amount of useable items being put into bulky waste: an online exchange market.

Connecting hunters with their treasure

Klaus Stapf, Karlsruhe's environment mayor, has developed this online platform where people in the city can give things away for free. The Karlsruhe website has been running for less than two weeks, but already hundreds of items are up for grabs. For example, there's a DVD player, a bicycle and a double bed available for anyone who wants them.

"We think giving away is better than throwing away," Stapf said. He said the city was very happy with the turnout. "A lot of people here from the city have used it," he added.

Katharine Brömel is one of those users. She wants to give away a DVD player since she's recently bought a more modern Blu-ray player.

"I am a student and I am always glad if I get something for free," she said. "I think there is always this kind of awareness in my generation of sustainability so that we don't throw away things. That we like to recycle them and give them to someone else."

Author: Kate Hairsine / sst
Editor: Holly Fox