By Björn Trautwein
Don’t complain, just do it. In the “Clean Up Trepnick” initiative, volunteers work together to keep our city clean. Colleagues are being sought.
Hand on heart: what have you cleaned today? Bathroom, kitchen, maybe the living room? For the helpers of the “Clean Up Trepnick” initiative, these are all small fish. They don’t just clean their own home, they clean an entire district! The group meets regularly and collects garbage from the streets, green spaces and bushes in Treptow-Köpenick!
“I come from Adlershof myself,” says the head of the volunteer cleaning team, Diana Franz (43), “I moved back after a time abroad and I noticed that it is much dirtier today than I remembered it before .”
Diana Franz (43) leads the initiative for a clean Treptow-Köpenick Photo: Private
That was three years ago and since then the employee of a property management company on Kudamm has been collecting garbage on a voluntary basis. “I think doing is always better than complaining,” she says, “and when it’s looked after, you feel better,”
Little by little she came across like-minded people and the Clean-Up Initiative, which she now runs on a voluntary basis. “It’s fun to work together with others.“
Entrepreneur Leonie Krüger (26) and her friend, student Max Teschke (27), also see it that way. They look after the Adlershof district in the initiative as so-called “neighborhood partners”. They started collecting garbage in the Köllnische Heide while walking their dog Kaya. “At some point we bought our first gripper,” says Max.
In order to better organize the clean-up operations, the initiative has begun to divide the district. The neighborhood partners take care of activities in their districts, are contact persons and role models!
On average, the group collects five large garbage bags full of dirt, and at larger events an entire container is sometimes full. “It’s crazy what people throw away,” says Enrico (47), who looks after Oberschöneweide at Clean-Up: “We’ve already found old sinks, car tires, metal pipes and building rubble.”
Collecting rubbish is not only mandatory, but also puts you in a good mood, like here during spring cleaning in Wuhlheide Photo: Private
A tombstone and a safe were the most bizarre things Diana Franz has picked up so far. “But unfortunately it was already broken up and empty,” she says and laughs.
Next Saturday the team will meet for the “Garbage Round” at Bruno-Bürgel-Weg 142. Further dates at Clean-up trepnick. We are also looking for colleagues and neighborhood partners for several districts in Treptow-Köpenick!