The "Donate Your Deposit" project at Cologne Bonn Airport is celebrating its tenth anniversary and can look back on an impressive record. Since May 2015, passengers have deposited approximately three million deposit bottles into the collection bins. This has generated deposit proceeds of almost €740.000, which will be used to finance jobs for the formerly long-term unemployed.
The initiative, a collaboration between the airport, JobWerk Porz, and the recycling company Der Grüne Punkt, enables the employment of three JobWerk Porz deposit return representatives at the airport. These employees empty the collection bins, sort, and pack the empties, thus ensuring a smooth process. Der Grüne Punkt recycles the collected bottles, while the deposit proceeds go entirely to JobWerk Porz.
Thilo Schmid, CEO of Flughafen Köln/Bonn GmbH, praised the project as a "prime example of sustainability in action – socially, ecologically, and regionally effective" and announced an additional annual contribution of €10.000 to the airport for logistics costs. Inez Wolf, Managing Director of JobWerk Porz, emphasized the concrete opportunities for people who are often disadvantaged in the regular labor market. Jörg Deppmeyer of the Green Dot organization emphasized how perceived waste can be transformed into added value for social projects and resource conservation.
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