History

For more than a hundred years, potash salt was promoted as the basis for fertilizer production in the northern Thuringian region. As a result, huge salty spoil heaps were created, which on the one hand shaped the landscape and on the other hand polluted the adjacent rivers in an environmentally damaging manner.

One of these huge spoil heaps is in Menteroda. As the highest point in the Unstrut-Hainich district, around 47 million tons of salt rock are stored here on an area of ​​65 hectares. The daily salty lye that emerges from the heap is used to stabilize the Volkenroda mine field.

In order to prevent the dissolution of the salt rock, former employees of the then Volkenroda potash plant founded Menteroda Recycling GmbH in 1991.