Environmental scouts raise awareness of the waste problem
"Stay clean!" is the motto of the environmental scouts' project in Wiesbaden's city center. They are out and about in the Historic Pentagon to sensitize passers-by to the topic of waste prevention. The prevention campaign does not involve any finger-wagging, instead the scouts give tips and hand out useful tools.
"We want a lively and attractive city center in Wiesbaden where everyone feels comfortable and enjoys spending time. In order to curb littering, i.e. the careless throwing away of garbage in public spaces, something has to change in people's minds," says Wiesbaden's mayor and head of the environment department Christiane Hinninger. "That's why we want to encourage people to think along the lines of 'This is your city, make sure it stays clean'."
Communication at eye level
As teams of two, the dedicated and appropriately trained environmental scouts will now be walking through the streets and squares of Wiesbaden's city center every Friday and Saturday evening from 5 to 9 p.m. for three months. They are easily recognizable by their bright green vests.
The task of the environmental scouts is not to clean up with litter tongs. Rather, they provide education through communication at eye level. They approach passers-by and talk to them about the growing litter problem and its impact on people and the environment. In this way, they want to raise awareness of the issue of waste avoidance in urban society.
Useful dispensing items
"Littering harms people, the environment and causes immense costs," says Mayor Hinninger: "Carelessly discarded waste endangers health and reduces the attractiveness of our city for residents and visitors. It also removes raw materials from the material cycle that can be recycled and thus save new materials and energy".
"The scouts distribute useful aids such as small ashtrays and dog waste bags free of charge. And they give tips on how to dispose of waste correctly on site," explains City Manager Jens Ackermann: "With the environmental scouts, we want to test the success we can achieve in reducing waste with education and incentives."