ASCON makes Bundestag election campaign environmentally friendly

After the regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia in the spring of 2017, ASCON ran a pilot test for the collection and recycling of polypropylene (PP) election posters. This trial run was extremely successful; ASCON managed to collect and recycle around 20 tons of valuable polypropylene. Until now, the posters were usually incinerated after an election – an outdated way of disposing of them and not environmentally friendly.

"On the basis of this success in North Rhine-Westphalia, we now offer all political parties throughout Germany the collection and recycling of election posters as a service," says Andreas Henn, the head of ASCON's sorting, recycling and reverse distribution department. "The response has been extremely positive; many political associations have already indicated that they would be willing to participate."

Numerous volunteers from many parties will take the polypropylene election posters down after the Bundestag election and collect them at central collection points with the aid of local disposal companies. From these central collection points, ASCON will bring the pallets to plastics recycling companies who will then shred the posters, grind and clean them to obtain a first-class secondary raw material. This ground polypropylene will then be used to manufacture new products or even new twin wall polypropylene posters.

"With this take-back system, ASCON has established yet another promising recycling system for valuable secondary raw materials," says Andreas Henn. "We are also delighted by the positive response from the political parties and the population. We will continue to expand this system for the collection and recycling of polypropylene posters in order to reintroduce even more valuable materials to the cycle."