Cologne: From city leaves to compost soil – autumn becomes fertilizer | Regional
Cologne – HERE gold leaf becomes real money!
Autumn has Cologne firmly in its grip, the AWB sweepers are working at full speed: 600 employees in 250 vehicles have been collecting fallen leaves from Cologne’s streets since the beginning of November in a “special operation to remove leaves”.
So every year around 2000 tons (about 200 garbage trucks full) come together. The AWB brings the leaves to the AVG in Niehl. There, the tree waste becomes compost, which the farmers use as fertilizer!
THIS is how Cologne’s autumn becomes fertilizer:
► AWB trucks deliver the leaves to Niehl, where they are stored in heaps several meters high. From there it goes into the so-called Red Hall.
► Operations Manager Michael Tegetmeier (57) to BILD: “The leaves lie here for three weeks. Oxygen and water drive the composting process.”
► At the end, the composted leaves are sieved to remove any leftovers such as plastic parts. Tegetmeier: “The end product then goes to the farmers as a humus substitute or fertilizer. The compost soil is more in demand than ever because the production of fertilizer has become so expensive.”
By the way: The AWB remove leaves where they would otherwise be swept – on streets and paths that private individuals have to keep clean, the leaves have to be swept themselves.