Berlin

Flexible working hours and special units. How and where rubbish collection works. The case of Berlin: Rubbish collectors with keys to the house.

There are no rubbish bins on the street, no piles of garbage blighting the roads and monuments. In Berlin, the German capital with more than three million inhabitants, waste is separated. Berliner Stadtreinigung (BSR), a government facility that disposes of waste, like AMIA in Palermo, collects 900 million tonnes of waste per year, all of which is recycled. The waste incineration plant in Spandau uses 500 tonnes of rubbish to produce steam for generating electricity and for district heating systems, the remainder is made into compost.

How does the Berlin system work? Rubbish bins are only located in the jointly used areas of the individual buildings, not at the entryway, but in the courtyard or cellar. Depending on demand, a certain number of bins are leased. The owners of the flats and offices decide whether the bins will be emptied only once or even twice a week. Usually, there is a brown bin for organic waste, a grey bin for residual waste, a green one for glass, yellow for plastics and a blue bin for paper. BSR takes care of the organic and residual waste. Every three years there is a call for tenders for the disposal of glass, plastic and paper. Private firms compete for the commission with BSR, which won the bid for the coming three years.

Unlike in Italy, the 1,200 Berlin rubbish collectors possess keys to each of the buildings. On collection day, they open the house doors in groups according to district, empty the bins and put them back in their places. For this service, each household pays a fee of 200 euros per year on average; the amount varies depending on the number of bins and the frequency of collection.

With its 5,000 employees and turnover of 476 million euros, BSR also cares for the 20,000 public trash bins and street cleaning. Its fleet consists of 2,200 vehicles, including 1,750 waste trucks and 450 special vehicles, for example for snowploughs.

The accounts of the company, which does not make a profit from waste disposal, are, unlike those in Palermo, controlled each year by a committee consisting of representatives of the employees and by people appointed by the mayor, such as the finance minister. The people of Berlin are satisfied with this system. What is the secret of functional rubbish collection? “Good work organization,” according to BSR spokesman Thomas Klöckner, “transparent financial administration, but mainly the participation of the citizens, who must be involved and made responsible parties.”