Summer or winter weather. For Abfallentsorgungs- und Stadtreinigungsbetrieb Paderborn (ASP), this is the occasion to make you aware of the right way to handle the bio-waste container. By exactly following the tips from the experts, you can largely avoid the unpleasantness normally associated with the bio-waste container - even in summer or while freezing.

What Dirk Lohfink, Waste Advisor at ASP, has to say on this: "Ideally, one has or makes a shady place for summer and a warmer one for winter in which to keep the bio-waste container. In the hot season, the pre-sorting container in the kitchen must be lined particularly carefully with a sufficiently thick layer of newspaper and, for hygienic reasons, has to be emptied out more often, especially when a lot of leftovers and fruit and vegetable scraps have built up." After emptying the bio-waste container must be well dried out by leaving the lid open for some time. The bottom of the dry bio-waste container should be covered with bunched-up newspaper. Bunched-up newspaper should also be added to the bio-waste once in a while if the waste is very moist. Above all, meat, fish and fruit scraps must always be wrapped up tightly in newspaper before being put in the bio-waste container. While freezing, also pack moist waste in paper and place your bin in a warmer place over night, f.e. the car Garage. Wet foiliage can freeze to the biobin, losen it with a spade, then it will fall out during the emptying.

As we have already mentioned, plastic bags, even supposedly compostable bags made from film-like material, are not permitted in the bio-waste container. Only news-paper and the paper-bags for the pre-sorting container, which are also commercially available, can be put in the bio-waste container, as they decompose rapidly enough to meet our high standards. Using these bags helps to prevent unpleasant smells coming from your bin and also helps make it less attractive to insects.

Green cutting that gather occasionally and cannot go in the bio-waste container can be brought to the recycling yards "An der Talle" and "Driburger Strasse" free of charge, in quantities of up to one car boot load at a time. The opening times of the recycling yards can be seen on the current ASP waste calendar or on the Internet.

Every winter has the same dilemma: after a severe overnight chill, the bio-waste freezes inside the green container and intimately bonds with the bio bin. Despite increased efforts on the part of the garbage collectors, some containers can only be partially emptied, or not at all. In order to avoid such trouble, the Waste Advisors of ASP are giving tips again on handling bio-waste containers during the cold season.

Even in winter, you have to make sure the bio-waste container does not receive too much moisture, as this can cause waste to freeze to the container. Before filling, therefore, it makes good sense to line the bin with dry material such as newspaper, cardboard or bush trimmings. Moist bio-wastes, such as leftovers, should always be wrapped up in newspaper so that the moisture can be absorbed. Wet foliage, which has been squashed into the bio-waste container, can cause particular difficulties with emptying.

In order to ensure that the disposal of bio waste goes smoothly, Mechthild Hopmeier, Waste Advisor at ASP, offers the following advice: "When overnight frost is forecast it is advisable to put the green bio-waste containers in a frost-free place by nightfall on the evening before it is collected - a perfect place would be in the garage. Frozen foliage can be loosened from the walls of the bio-waste container with a spade shortly before it is collected, to help ensure that the bin is completely emptied."