From abandoned mattresses to syringes in playgrounds, Berliners say the capital’s rubbish problem is getting worse. Why is the city so dirty – and will politicians manage to clean it up after the state elections?
A few weeks ago, I was visiting a former housemate in the Berlin district of Neukölln for her child’s birthday party and started to feel a hint of nostalgia for my old neighbourhood.
“Sometimes I really miss living here,” I said.
One of the other parents immediately piped up.
“Yes, Neukölln’s great in a way,” she said. “But it’s also completely disgusting. There’s so much trash everywhere you look, and it’s getting worse – my daughter picked up a syringe in the playground the other day. You definitely made the right call moving away.”
Admittedly, in my new, greener neighbourhood, close to well-heeled Pankow, it’s rare to find drug paraphernalia at the Spielplatz. But it’s not unusual to see broken fridges lying out on the street or grime-covered mattresses dumped out in the rain, and the benches at my local playground are often peppered with cigarette butts.
Perhaps that explains why, in the run up to Berlin’s state elections on September 20th, waste disposal has become one of the most furiously debated issues.
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“Müllchaos beenden!” (End the trash chaos) demand the placards put up by the Left Party.
Echoing the Neukölln mum’s concerns, the SPD calls for a “Spielplatz ohne Spritze” (playground without syringes), while the AfD states that “Sauberkeit ist Ehrensache” (Cleanliness is a matter of honour).
And this hasn’t come out of nowhere. According to a recent poll by the Berliner Morgenpost, 73 percent of Berliners perceive their city as “exceptionally dirty”. Another survey, this time from the Senate, found that around 58 percent were dissatisfied with the cleanliness of Berlin.
My partner, a born-and-raised Berliner, recently described waste disposal as the most pressing issue for him in this election. Given the housing and affordability crisis in the city, it’s a bold sentiment – but it’s one that many people in the German capital apparently share.
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How bad is Berlin’s litter problem?
A quick glance at the statistics suggests that the anger around litter is far more than just middle-class hand-wringing.
Over the past two decades, the amount of illegal waste in Berlin has more than doubled. Back in 2006, Berlin’s waste disposal service, the BSR, collected 24,500 cubic metres of illegal waste. By 2024, this had risen to 54,000 cubic metres, costing the state more than €13 million per year.
Part of this rise can be attributed to the BSR simply having a wider remit: since 2023, they have also been charged with cleaning parks and playgrounds. But experts say that fly-tripping – dumping much larger waste in public areas – has also grown into a major problem over the years.
Illegal waste lies abandoned on a street in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jens Kalaene
Henning Wilts, a circular economy expert at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, said that the disposal of household waste like furniture had become a far larger problem in the capital than simple littering.
“People leave things outside their front door – often with good intentions, because they want to give them away,” he told 1&1. However, these “gifts” often end up as piles of crumbling refuse in the streets, and eventually have to be collected by state authorities.
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The “broken window” theory
According to Wilts, the current fines for illegal waste disposal don’t carry much weight because people don’t think they’re likely to get caught. But littering is also a product of the high turnover of people moving in and out of certain neighbourhoods.
“Berlin is an anonymous city,” he explained. “Lots of people move there and change flats quickly.” This means that many people never develop a sense of responsibility for their area.
In addition, the so-called “broken window” theory could play a role, he said. According to this theory, signs of decay can lead to further decline, just as broken windows in certain neighbourhoods appear to be linked to more break-ins.
“As soon as rubbish is lying around, people are less reluctant to throw more things there,” Wilts said. This means that, over time, certain areas can turn into littering hotspots, with Neukölln, Kreuzberg and Wedding among the worst-hit areas.
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What are politicians going to do about it?
In the battle to govern the German capital, each of the parties has set out its own proposals for dealing with Berlin’s litter problem.
For the Left Party, who are ahead in the polls, the answer is making waste disposal more accessible. This includes more free-of-charge collections of bulky household waste – a policy also favoured by the Greens and SPD.
Rubbish left out on a street in Berlin Neukölln. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christophe Gateau
The CDU, who are almost neck-and-neck with the Left Party, call for tighter controls, including CCTV and AI technology to catch culprits at key hotspots. They also want jobseekers to be tasked with picking up rubbish.
Meanwhile, the AfD, who are currently in third place in the polls, want asylum seekers and refugees to be put to work cleaning up rubbish, as well as more surveillance and regular controls by the Ordnungsamt.
Meanwhile, the SPD and Greens want to introduce a “packaging tax” to hold businesses responsible for their waste, while several parties suggest putting “waste investigators” on the streets.
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Will the proposals work?
Currently, the BSR already has several free-of-charge recycling points around the city, and also runs regular “Kieztage” (neighbourhood action days) where households can get rid of bulky waste.
Fines for littering have also been increased in recent years, with people who chuck away cigarette butts now facing a fine of €3,000.
However, Wilts believes that increases in fines have little preventative impact if people see that the state is too over-stretched to enforce them.
Instead, he argues, campaigns for waste reduction more generally, as well as education and social support, could be more effective tools in the long run.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thelocal.de
