Automated vacuum collection

In a Abfallsauganlage or Müllsauganlage the drop in multi-family houses in chutes and in detached house areas in input locations is thrown outdoors and transported over a public network of pipes with vacuum pneumatically to a collection point, from which it is transported by vehicles to the landfill. The first came in 1967 in Stockholm Abfallsauganlage used. The first system in the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1972 in Munich built the Olympic village by the German subsidiary of the Swedish company Centralsug and put into operation.

1973 Abfallsauganlagen in Bonn- Tannenbusch ( in operation since 1973, shut down since January 1, 2010) ( in operation from 3 October 1973, shut down since May 31, 2004 ) and put into operation in Heidelberg Emmertsgrund. In West Berlin, there is a street in the Schlangenbader Müllsauganlage ( inaugurated in 1982, discussed closure since 2007, expected 2013).

Müllsauganlage in Heidelberg Emmertsgrund

This facility was built in eight phases between October 3, 1973 and 1981 and put into operation. In the high-rises were chutes on each floor and in the streets of terraced houses were flat input places outdoors. For residents, this was very comfortable.

The plant was designed and built by the company Centralsug GmbH. During the construction of the exhaust system and the pipe network were designed to operate for 30 years. The construction of the plant cost in the year 1992 6.5 million DM capacity was planned for 12,000 residents, but only about 6,500 residents were connected to the system, as changes in the city part Concept and instead of the planned multi-storey buildings rather small residential units were realized.

For the purposes of the prevention of waste paper and waste glass were collected separately at collection from the mid -1980s that have been emptied of corresponding vehicles. Following the introduction of the Packaging Act ( Yellow Bag ) in 1991 had to be picked up conventionally and the " yellow trash " in bags. In a self- test the city of Heidelberg also several years special yellow bags were disposed of via the Müllsauganlage from the mid- 1990s. However, many of the yellow and gray bags came through damage to the pipe system slit at the central intake point.

In 1992, the City Council of the City of Heidelberg, the closure of the plant as part of an emergency program to avoid future waste emergency. This met with a largely ablehenende attitude of the population, so it was decided in 1996 by the council, for the time being continue to operate the plant as long as it was technically possible. 1999, a new concept for separate waste and recyclables disposal in Emmertsgrund district was approved by the local council. After residual waste was only disposed of the plant. The amount of waste that was disposed of through the Müllsauganlage 1999 corresponded to only about one-third of the originally projected amount.

Already in the 1990s there were huge problems with the suction pressure as the Müllansaugrohre were ailing. Due to the narrow cross section repairs were very expensive. They tried to counteract the wear of the tubes with the so-called plastic liners. This method has, however, not proven, since replaced the inserted plastic pipes from the base material. An entry of persons into the pipes - also for maintenance purposes - was prohibited by the Labour Inspectorate in 1993. Due to rapidly rising rehabilitation costs and high operating costs, the Müllsauganlage was shut down in stages from 2000. While there were about five blockages annually by 2002, this occurred in 2003 on an almost weekly basis, although the amount of waste has been reduced by the gradual decoupling of some large residential complexes by over 70%. The reasons for the frequent problems were due to leaks in the pipe system.

According to the city of Heidelberg in 2003, trouble-free operation of the Next Müllsauganlage would be possible only by a complete change in image. The costs were conservatively estimated at about 20 million euros. Since a conventional garbage disposal is considerably cheaper, the City Council of the City of Heidelberg decided on 23 July 2003, the shutdown of the Müllsauganlage after many legal issues had been resolved. The final shutdown of the former flagship project took place on 31 May 2004.

The pipes were filled up to the surface through the city of Heidelberg.

Abfallsauganlage in Bonn- Tannenbusch

This plant has been shut down since January 1, 2010. She served since the beginning of the 70's up to 12,000 residents of the district of Bonn ( re) Tannenbusch for unproblematic and clean waste disposal. She was the biggest waste extraction system in the world. It included a suction power of about 12 kilometers in length and 200 throw shafts (100 permanently installed in the multi-storey and high-rise buildings, 100 outdoors).

In 1991, in Germany the Packaging Ordinance in force. After thus made ​​introduction of the yellow bins or the yellow garbage bags for packaging waste in the Tannenbuscher system should serve only the detection of the so-called residual waste.

During the 40 years of its operating period, approximately 50,000 tons of household waste were disposed of in this Abfallsauganlage. Arrived with a transport speed of about 90 km / h trash bags or loose waste in a collection in the industrial park " Hohe Straße ". From there, the transport by container and truck went on to waste incineration plant in Bonn- Endenich.

Abuse and damage have made this form of waste disposal are increasingly expensive and not very environmentally friendly. Self- hazardous waste and slaughterhouse waste from private households got into the system and had to be salvaged at great expense. In addition, also damaged wrongly thrown heavy objects the underground pipelines and tore holes in their walls.

This damage could not be promptly identified and rectified usually, so that at various points through the operation of the exhaust fan large quantities of soil was sucked. In the resulting cavities under the surface caused sometimes damage to overlying roadways and other surfaces. The risk of a burglary, which building or could even draw people damage which caused the responsible authorities to stop the operation of the Tannenbuscher Abfallsauganlage.

The Council of the City of Bonn has decided the closure of the waste extraction system from the autumn of 2009 in March 2007. The closure of several Einfüllschächte was ahead of schedule, the last of the year 2009 /2010. A dismantling of the plant is planned. The dismantling of the system has cost about 1.5 million euros, for the entire dismantling of the plant, ie the filling of the pipes and the demolition of 150 Einfüllstationen, the Environment Department had given an estimate of 4 million euros in advance.