Press release 2022/06 of the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin
The municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin considers the site for the planned 40 m high building rubble landfill between the villages of Herzfelde and Hennickendorf - in the centre of our municipal area - to be completely unsuitable.
In a letter dated 7 March 2022, the State Office for the Environment (LfU) informed the municipality that the documents for a planning approval procedure for a so-called inert material landfill are to be published from 4 April to 3 May 2022 and that public participation in the procedure will therefore begin. Citizens have the opportunity to submit their objections to or comments on the project in writing to the municipality or the State Office for the Environment by 3 June 2022. The authorities and public agencies will be involved separately and invited to comment.
The municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin, supported by a clear mandate from the municipal council and the people in the community, sought an early and intensive dialogue with both the state authorities and Herzfelder Kreislaufwirtschafts- und Verwertungs GmbH (HKV) as the owner and constructor of the landfill and suggested alternative uses. [...] It is incomprehensible why the focus is once again on a high-emission utilisation of the site instead of building on responsible ecological development that also benefits the people who live here.
The fact that the HKV quotes Fontane on its own website and writes that he was "a great fan of the forest, meadow and lake landscape of Rüdersdorf" and raves about the "deep silence of nature" is perceived by the citizens as cynicism that cannot be surpassed in the face of a 40 metre high landfill site that is to be built up over 17 years.
There is a reason for this. The municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin was and has been a centre of the building materials industry for centuries and the people here paid the dusty price for the building prosperity of Berlin and its surrounding area. This has shaped and embittered the local people to this day. The backfilling of the former clay pits is understandable for them - but the subsequent piling up of a 40 metre high mountain of rubble, however it might be developed in 20 years' time, is not. In the 2010 land use plan, which is still valid, the municipality therefore stipulated that the area should be reforested at the level of the surrounding terrain and that any ponds created should be preserved as far as possible.
The municipality's largest employer is no longer the building materials industry, but the healthcare sector. As a clinic and healthcare centre with its own university hospital of the Brandenburg Medical School, it is now known beyond the region. This development is set to continue alongside the increasingly clean, future-orientated industry and limestone quarrying, which will remain indispensable for the next 40 years. A landfill site for building rubble that goes beyond backfilling is therefore absolutely unacceptable from the municipality's point of view.
Mayor Sabine Löser commented: "Our municipality is no longer prepared to pay the dusty price for the structural prosperity of Berlin and the surrounding area. We are proud of the activities of our industrial companies, which focus on sustainability and innovation, hydrogen technologies, waste heat utilisation and CO2 reduction. Together, we will fight to ensure that this sustainable thinking is also taken into account in the planning supported by the State Environment Agency and the State Mining Authority. To ensure that waste avoidance and recycling help to prevent the construction waste landfill in the centre of the municipality of Rüdersdorf. The people who live here will actively participate in the process. They are the ones affected and their voices weigh more heavily than official statements. We will make it clear that the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin is no longer a suitable location for a landfill site for construction waste."
As soon as the application documents are available to the municipality of Rüdersdorf bei Berlin, they will be scrutinised in detail and the pretexts asserted. Information on the possibilities for participation will be provided separately in an appropriate manner.
Contact:
Sabine Löser, Mayor of Rüdersdorf near Berlin - can be contacted via: Press spokesman Alexander Reetz: 033638 85 302