Litter-free Saalbach World Championships

Twelve-hour shifts for a clean party zone

The Saubermacher team put in extra-long shifts.(Bild: JHK)

One thing stands out at the fan mile in Hinterglemm: There is hardly any garbage lying around. The members of the Saubermacher team have to work extra-long shifts. Incidentally, the deposit system left many guests puzzled.

The figures are impressive: 15,000 party guests, almost every day for two weeks - that's a mammoth task for the garbage collectors too.

They work for twelve hours on race days, from five in the morning until 5 pm, explains Stefan Berger. He comes from Stuhlfelden and says: "We are totally positively surprised, the waste separation works better than we would have thought. People are totally open about it and accept everything. It couldn't be going better."

The services are longer than usual, but that's manageable. What you don't do for the World Cup

Stefan Berger

Bild: JHK

There are four garbage cans every 50 meters: Organic, plastic, paper and residual waste. In the morning, the fan mile is collected once and the team empties all the containers and bins. The bins are also collected again at lunchtime and then again after the race at around 5 pm.

"The services are longer than usual, but that's manageable. What you don't do for the World Championships!" smiles Berger. Ten people from Pinzgau are on site, plus a Styrian team of ten to 15 people, so the guys make sure the roads are clean.

Deposits are only returned to the card
The deposit system for cups is also responsible for a clean World Cup fan mile. The stalls take a deposit of three euros per cup. However, some guests were confused when they were told: "You can only get the deposit back on your ATM card." One party guest explained: "I don't understand that, but now I have to wait a few days until the money is in my account. Hopefully that will work." A sigh of relief for all skeptics: the same party guest contacted the "Krone" again: "It worked."