If the sofa is no longer to your liking, the mattress is worn out and needs replacing or other bulky items need to be disposed of, Stadtservice will collect them free of charge. Citizens can use the service twice a year free of charge, all they need to do is make an appointment. And this is also very easy, either by telephone on 069 840004-545 or just as quickly and easily on the website www.offenbach.de/sperrmuell.
"But even that is obviously too time-consuming for some citizens," suspects Frank Weber, Head of the Public Order Office, "and they choose the supposedly easy way and simply put everything on the street. Or they dispose of the items in the surrounding woods and meadows in an environmentally damaging way." The perpetrators usually don't realize that this will cost them dearly. Illegally disposed of bulky waste is not a trivial offense, but a case for the waste investigators. In sometimes meticulous detail, they search for clues as to who disposed of the old fridge, household goods or furniture. Last year, the waste investigators carried out 822 of these on-site inspections. In some cases, the investigators had to go out several times, bringing the total number of checks to 1,125. As a result, a total of 236 warnings or fines amounting to around 70,000 euros were issued.
"236 times is 236 times too many," says Weber. "Because litter disturbs the cityscape and also our fellow citizens." The fact that they are concerned about cleanliness and tidiness is also shown by the figures from the deficiency report. The app can be used to quickly and easily report illegal waste, a broken sign, a faulty traffic light or a disruptive pothole. Over the course of last year, a total of 15,769 reports relating to cleanliness were received via the defect detector and were recorded and processed by the Clean Offenbach Stabsstelle.
There are around 2,000 waste garbage cans in the city, the pollutant mobile is on the road in the city districts for old paint residues or oils and used tires can be handed in at the recycling center in Dieselstraße - so there is no shortage of options for disposing of waste, says City Councillor and Head of Public Order Paul-Gerhard Weiß. "And yet general cleanliness in Offenbach remains a Herculean task. We know that the majority of citizens behave sensibly and correctly in the spirit of public spirit, but everyone else cannot avoid penalties, some of which are hefty."