This article is part of TIME on the weekendissue 17/2026.
The seventies were the wild times of Frank d’Hone’s mother-in-law, and numerous carnival medals bear witness to this. Or rather: procreated. Because now the colorful metal things are lying between old cooking pots and shower heads at the recycling center in the Gremberghoven district of Cologne. Nobody wanted her anymore, not even d’Hone’s teenage daughter, even though she herself is in the carnival club. She has her own.
In spring, German waste management is in full swing because many people are cleaning up and clearing out – a representative YouGov survey According to this, it is more than half of adult German citizens. The waste disposal company AWB operates two recycling centers in Cologne, and on some Saturdays in April 5,000 cars are piled up there, almost five times as many as usual. In the trunks: green waste, bulky packaging, leftover wallpaper – but also: the sofa that grandma closed in 1995 Christmas got. The old children’s desk with the ink stains. All the books that the man constantly brought around during his lifetime but never read.