Editorial on garbage in the city More trash cans would be a blessing for Bonn's city center
Bonn · OPINION: It’s been the same problem in the city center for years: When the weather is nice and there are lots of people out, the trash cans are overflowing. Bonnorange says there are enough trash bins in the city. But the reality is different, says GA editor Andreas Baumann.
Bonn's city center pulsates with life on the weekends. It's as if people want to make up for what they were denied during the last lockdown: strolling past display windows, enjoying a coffee in the fresh air, seeing and being seen. Even when the weather isn't really summery like last Saturday, the city gets really crowded - even if that doesn't necessarily translate to more people in the stores.
Unfortunately, the popularity of the city center also results in visibly overflowing waste bins. This has been a nuisance for years. In winter, the Bonnorange city cleaners said the forced closure of restaurants (during the lockdown) was the reason for the unsavory and overfilled trash receptacles: people had been buying more takeaway food and throwing away the packaging, they said. Now the restaurants are open again, plastic cups and disposable packaging have been banned in restaurants throughout the EU since July - but the waste problem in the city center remains as nasty as it was.
According to Bonnorange, there are 100 waste bins, each holding 100 liters. Larger garbage cans are out of the question for occupational safety reasons because they are too heavy to empty. The city's sanitation department considers the number of trash receptacles to be sufficient. One can only say: Reality suggests otherwise on weekends. Bonnorange should at long last install more trash cans in the city. The higher costs should not be loaded just on nearby property owners, however, but instead should be taken over by the city: A clean city also has something to do with tourism promotion and cultivating a positive image.
Orig. text: Andreas Baumann
Translation: ck
