Offenbach/Frankfurt (dpa/lhe) – Florian Früchel collects waste on the Autobahn that others have carelessly thrown out of the car or truck window. The 30-year-old from Offenbach collects rubbish in his free time. He has set himself the goal of keeping a five-kilometer section of the A3 clean. He spends several hours a week near Heusenstamm (Offenbach district).
Früchel also organizes cleanups, which he arranges to meet with others. Recently, within a few hours, the assembled volunteers collected an amount of waste that filled more than 20 bags. “People throw their rubbish over the crash barrier and drive on,” said Früchel. The fact that he has to start all over again a few weeks later is frustrating. “But before I get upset, I’d rather pick up the rubbish,” said the 30-year-old. He always keeps a safety distance of at least 1.5 to 2 meters from the crash barrier.
The finds can also be really disgusting: Früchel regularly finds plastic bottles filled with urine, “trucker bombs,” as he puts it, referring to truck drivers who relieved themselves in this way while driving. He’s also found a dead blackbird, hopelessly tangled in a plastic tangerine net.
Früchel’s commitment is followed by a fan base on social media. The 30-year-old transports the collected waste to a public garbage can with his bicycle trailer. The local disposal company will pick it up from there.
Rubbish that is carelessly thrown away or deliberately dumped in the wild is a growing problem, including in cities. Motorway parking lots and rest areas on the A3 and A5, especially in the Rhine-Main area, as well as the motorways around Kassel and junctions near fast food restaurants are particular problem areas, according to the Federal Motorway GmbH. According to this, thousands of tons of waste accumulate on the highways in Hesse every year, the disposal of which costs around 1.5 million euros.
