Of water sounds, waste and wondrous learning places

There are three unusual “learning environments” for children in Ludwigshafen: in the waste-to-energy plant, in an outdoor classroom and in the former indoor pool Hallenbad Nord. There, you can learn a lot about how to protect the climate. Not least because sometimes the sound of the sea can be heard at the pool attendant’s cabin.

Ella comes prepared—with a clothes peg. She wears it proudly on her nose as soon as the six-metre-big garbage claw has released its load—high above their heads. The moment plenty of the household rubbish has disappeared in the incineration funnel of the waste-to-energy plant Gemeinschafts-Müllheizkraftwerk Ludwigshafen GmbH (GML), a cloud of dust rises up. Yet, the eight-year-old and her classmates are cheerful and impressed at the same time. They have been learning about waste in their general studies classes for some time now, but none of them has ever taken a tour just like the one they are experiencing this morning.

“Environmental education”, as it is called, is what brought the 22 children of the Schillerschule primary school in Mundenheim so close to this gigantic garbage claw. Before that, they had already explored the beautiful outdoor classroom situated on a green space on the edge of the waste-to-energy plant, sorted rubbish under the supervision of environmental educationalist Bettina Böhmer and investigated a compost heap. After that, they went straight to the power plant together. And only a few minutes walking distance away from the colossal incineration plant, the kids could even discover a third unusual site. GML’s former Hallenbad Nord swimming pool has been serving as a water basin for firefighting since 2013. This not only saved the wonderful post-war modernist building from 1956 by Heinrich Schmitt and Philipp Blaumer from destruction, but it also allowed for a third learning environment for children and adults, picking up on the topic waste and even taking it one step further.

The permanent exhibition of the swimming pool with the title “The Four Elements” is about fire, water, earth and air, but most of all it addresses the big questions of our times—like: How can we avoid waste? What does climate change actually mean for us? And what can each and every one of us do to use the resources of our planet in a more conscious way? Seeking answers to these questions, visitors can follow a trail across the swimming pool—from the gallery downstairs to the former shower units and the changing rooms. But the exhibitors did not content themselves with information panels alone. With the help of VR goggles, visitors can look directly into the furnace of the power plant next door. Right beside the pool attendant’s cabin, at the touch of a button you can hear the different sound forms of water—from the crunching sound of walking on snow to the rushing sound of the sea. Behind old signs, there are cartoons, an architectural model of the swimming pool or funny video clips on the topic of consumerism in converted garbage bins waiting to be discovered.  

Class 3e skips the indoor swimming pool this morning, because the exhibition here is intended for children of the eighth grade and above. But anyone familiar with the wide range of activities offered by the waste-to-energy plant might suspect that this may not have been the third graders’ last visit here. “Ideally, a lot of the kids in the region will visit us every two or three years,” Jochen Schütz, managing director of GML, says. The engineer had already offered guided tours and holiday programmes for kids at his previous workplace, a biomass heating plant in Sinsheim. “However, the range of activities offered in Ludwigshafen is truly exceptional—and, above all, it is intended for different age groups.”

Ideally, a lot of the kids in the region will visit us every two or three years

Jochen Schütz

In the outdoor classroom, wire objects made of waste are telling of the fact that workshops on upcycling are held here, too. GML cooperates with the “Clean River Kids” that draw attention to the problems of microplastics and regularly collect litter at rivers. But there are also projects in cooperation with NABU Ludwigshafen, a division of the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, or the German Children’s Fund, concerts for the climate in the indoor swimming pool and even art.    

This morning, though, the sheer everyday routine is impressive enough to make Class 3e think. Vividly and in an easy-to-grasp way suitable for children, Bettina explains the various processes of the power plant. She takes the children with her to the crane operator’s cabin and explains how district heating is made of waste. “I studied earth sciences,” Bettina recounts. She now offers the guided tours for kids for UDATA, a Neustadt-based company, on behalf of GML. This morning, however, she wears several hats. She is educator, factory tour guide and scientist at the same time. She explains the traffic system and the safety regulations on the site, talks to the kids about the advantages and disadvantages of plastic and gives them a glance into the perpetually burning fire of the plant—even if it is “only” on a display.  

Every day, GML takes care of the residual waste of one million people in the metropolitan region on the left bank of the Rhine. About 100 refuse lorries arrive here each day from Ludwigshafen, Frankenthal, Neustadt, Mannheim and Speyer, the districts of Alzey-Worms, Bad Dürkheim, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis district and Kaiserslautern to unload up to 200,000 tonnes of refuse per year. At the entrance to the site, there is a weighbridge that is normally only used by refuse lorries to calculate their daily waste disposal charges. An average refuse lorry weighs one tonne—when empty. 22 school children, their teacher Florian Himmighöfer and Bettina Böhmer together weigh 990 kilogrammes, as a digital panel indicates. “Compared to the many kilogrammes that arrive here, you are as light as a feather,” Bettina says. But the fact that the children after the tour have become so much more aware of how to deal with waste luckily weighs so much more…

Das „Freilandklassenzimmer“ richtet sich an Kindergärten und Schulen bis zur 12. Klasse. Je nach Bedarf, Unterrichtsplan oder Aufenthaltsdauer gibt es verschiedene Inhalte. Das Angebot ist kostenlos. Außerdem werden regelmäßig Workshops angeboten.

https://www.gml-ludwigshafen.de

Das Ehemalige Hallenbad Nord und das GML-Informationszentrum „Die vier Elemente“ stehen bei Veranstaltungen offen.