12.8 kilograms of plastic waste have been collected by employees of the Department of Health Services Research over the past few months. They are supporting an initiative that aims to eradicate the highly contagious disease polio.
In the kitchen of the Department of Health Services Research there is a cardboard box labelled: "STOP! Please only throw in plastic lids". Over the past few months, university employees, their friends and family members have helped to fill the box several times. A total of 12.8 kilograms of plastic waste has been collected, but this waste is special: it finances oral polio vaccinations.
The "Deckel drauf e.V." association ensures that the plastic lids are recycled. The proceeds go to "End Polio Now" - a Rotary project that has set itself the goal of eradicating polio worldwide. 500 lids, or one kilogramme, are equivalent to the value of one oral polio vaccination. In December, the organisation announced that a good 50 million lids had been recycled so far.
Poliomyelitis, also known as polio, is a highly contagious infectious disease. The last infection in Germany was in 1990. The virus mainly affects children under the age of five. No cure has yet been found. The virus is currently still present in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
You can find more information about the campaign in Germany at www.deckel-gegen-polio.de. An overview of distribution centres can also be found there.
