Dear forest visitors,
We invite you to visit the Aachen Forest. You are also welcome to have a picnic there, eat your sandwiches and have a drink. Everything is completely free of charge, because the forest belongs to all of us. However, we would also ask you to take the packaging back home with you. The empty bottles, cans and packets should actually be lighter than the food you brought with you...
There are around 100 litter garbage cans in Aachen Forest. These are emptied regularly by the municipal forestry office and the waste is taken away. All of this incurs costs and keeps employees away from the actual work in the forest, from maintenance, care and planting.
Investigations into beverage cans or bottles lying around show that small animals can get into them and not find their way out again. Leftover food is not digestible for wild animals, some packaging is eaten and clumps together in the animals' stomachs.
So nature conservation is also about keeping human impact in the forest as low as possible and taking back everything we put in! Animals and nature thank you!