After multiple companies disbanded their individual archives, the SASE established itself as the joint archive of the sector, documenting the technical and social develop ments within the waste management and city cleaning industry. The current collection consists of:
- 120 000 historical photographs (from 1900 till today)
- 1200 films
- 2500 books and magazines related to the waste management and city cleaning industry
- 350 files referring to related associations, political decisions and the sector itself
Today the SASE holds the world’s largest collection of documents and artifacts dealing with the history of waste collection and management while offering specialists and the interested public to study and research.
The increasing demand to utilize the vast collection for training, environmental education and other topics highlights the importance of the SASE as the knowledge center of the industry.
Detailed insights into the various development paths of the different sub ind>ustries can be gained from the collection. Understanding the historical reasons and triggers of these developments, in relation to their technical and economic background, allows us to utilize them for future developments of the waste processing and recycling industry.
The Deutsche Abfallwirtschaftsbibliothek (German Library of Waste Industry), which is as well part of the SASE, ensures the preservation of the industry’s knowledge and the public access to it.
Knowledge is a resource and to sustain this resource, a catalogue (DABib) consisting out of 42.000 directory units has been published online for research purpose. Due to do nations of books and whole collections the DABib is growing continuously.