Bremen government reported because of flying “plastic waste”. From 1993 onwards, Eckhard Stengel reported for the FR from the north. Now he publishes his “Bremer Rundschau”.
Bremen’s Mayor Carsten Sieling has only been in office for a few months – and already he has his first complaint on his neck: on duty for pollution. What did he do, the 57-year-old social democrat? Has he thrown Senate files in the Weser? Or does his company car emit too much exhaust fumes? No, in the old mayoral tradition, Sieling opened the annual raffle to finance the Bremen Bürgerpark. And as is customary, he also let 500 balloons with attached bye vouchers rise.
What he did not suspect: A certain Ernst Hasenfuss from Großenkneten in Lower Saxony would also find out about it from the newspaper. And with the 65-year-old bio teacher i. R. is not to be trifled with when it comes to balloons – especially when small plastic cards and ribbons are attached to them.
Hasenfuss has been writing letters to the editor for years to warn of such dangerous flying objects: “The rubber residues with attachments then end up somewhere: in the sea, on the meadows and fields, in the forest – pollute nature, are eaten by fish, cows, horses, sheep, and these poor creatures die miserably. ”For example, from an intestinal obstruction. And all just for the entertainment of the people.
So far, Hasenfuss has contented himself with writing letters to the editor (…). But with a public role model like Sieling, the pensioner preferred to use the sharpest weapon: a complaint for “deliberate pollution”. Shortly afterwards he also denounced Sieling’s deputy, the Green Senator for Finance, Karoline Linnert, after she had set up 200 colorful weapons in Bremen-Nord, again for the Bürgerpark. Plastic waste by air freight! (…)
His eyes were opened when he visited the national park house on the North Sea island of Juist. There he saw a display case with balloon strings. They had been collected on the beach: a total of 500 meters in four months. (…)
As a look on the Internet shows, dogs sometimes also eat balloons. According to the “Schnauzer-Pinscher-Portal Schnaupi”, however, a home remedy helps: sauerkraut in cans. “This surrounds the foreign body and transports it out safely.” A procedure that is less suitable for cows or seagulls, however. (…)
How it went on:
The public prosecutor’s office and environmental authority checked the reports, but could neither identify a criminal offense nor an administrative offense. The public prosecutor wrote that the rise of balloons constitutes “socially typical behavior”. (…)
Despite the public prosecutor’s charter, the Bürgerpark raffle refrained from balloon launches in the following years. (2016)
