Photo: Emilia and Maike with educator Pascal Jaeger/SWE, Steve Bauerschmidt
Collector's hard work and animal creativity
Paper is a great material for crafting and a valuable raw material. Paper has been collected in schools and children's facilities in Erfurt since 2003. The competition, which was launched by SWE Stadtwirtschaft GmbH, entered its 20th round last school year.
“For a fair assessment of the hard work of collectors, there is a per capita value, so even small institutions are not disadvantaged. The basis for participation is an agreement between Stadtwerke Erfurt and the support association of the educational institution or the association such as volunteer fire brigades or sports clubs," explains Annett Nippold, responsible for educational communication at Stadtwerke Erfurt, the competition system and adds, "the result of the competition that has just ended is something to be proud of. Children collected 132 tons of waste paper from the 88 participating institutions, a huge step for the environment. The production of recycled paper with a high proportion of recycled paper saves 78 percent water, 68 percent energy and 15 percent CO2 emissions compared to virgin fiber paper. Erfurt is one of the pioneers; nationwide, this “collection of old materials” only exists in very large cities, such as Berlin. Since 2020, the collective winners have been evaluated via a bonus system. €3,550 can be “collected” in this way.”
Thousands of kilos
This year's collection winners come from the south of Erfurt. For the first place, the Dittelstedt Fire Department Support Association. V., there are 3,690 kg of waste paper. The runners-up from the Albert Schweitzer Children's Village and Familienwerken Thüringen eV raised the same amount. The decision was made based on the per capita collection value. The young firefighters collected 99 kg of paper per child and received a bonus of 1,000 euros. The runners-up in the competition are proud of 92 kg per child involved. For this they received 750 euros. The AWO daycare center “Am Sportplatz” from Ermstedt has been active in the paper competition for many years and secured third place with a total of 2860 kg, which was an impressive 87 kg per child. For this, 500 euros will go into the daycare savings box.
The facilities in 4th – 7th place are happy to receive 250 euros each. Places 8 to 10 receive 100 euros.
Paper animals
In addition to the hard work of collecting, creativity also counts in the paper competition. The children dealt with paper as a raw material, its extraction, use and recycling, becoming all-round paper professionals. In the creative part on the topic “P – for paper tiger, mouse & co.” there was a total of €1,100 to be won.
The extremely good models of the after-school children from the state primary school 3 “Am Kleinen Herrenberg” convinced the jury. Ants, dragonflies, bees, mosquitoes, butterflies, ladybugs and flies were created by the children's skilled hands from waste paper in a project on nesting aids and insect clay walls under the motto "What's going on here?" In addition to 500 euros for the after-school care fund, the primary school students were happy about it an exciting, funny and educational theater performance in the Association for Theater, Environment, Therapy & Play. The crocodile monkey fant, the fantasy creature, secured second place and 300 euros for the “Frecklersprosse & Farbenklecks” kindergarten on Clausewitzstrasse. The grasshopper, the mascot of the same name from the Gispersleben daycare center, took third place. There was 200 euros for this. The 100 euros of the special prize went to the environmental group at the Gispersleben elementary school for the model with courageous mice, collies, butterflies and cranes. The winners of the creative competition were also invited to the environmental theater as recognition.
Source: Stadtwerke Erfurt