Hi There,
I am continuing to write short stories on life in Switzerland and todays topic is Waste Recycling. I would love to know how this topic is threated in your country, please share in comments!
In Switzerland we get a “Waste Recycling Calender” once a year. It is sent per post to each family and you hand it somewhere where you can easily access it from time to time. Here how it looks like at our place:
At the upper part there is actually a calendar where you can read when which kind of waste is collected and where. Some waste kinds like paper and carton are picked up once a month in front of you house.Like that (honesty I gave up a hope to learn to do it in the right way… it looks easier than it is, belive me!)
The rules you have to follow are simple - you have to bind paper (or carton) in a very special way and leave it on the street at 6 am in the morning. You are not allowed to do it an evening before because first no one wants to look at all this waste and second it can rain in the night an make everything wet.
Then there are special days a couple of times a year where you can gave up your special waste somewhere in the center of your village - e.g. furniture, oil, tree branches, colors, acids etc.
All this information about what, when and where you can find at this calendar:
In the middle part there is information on what all these symbols above mean and also how much it costs to get rid of this and what waste. Here are a few words about costs:
In Switzerland we have to buy special bags for casual waste, it is about 1 Swiss Franc (ca. equals 1 USD now) per 17 Liter waste bag. Some bigger houses with many appartments inside have also compost containers in front of them and you can throw any organic waste in it, it costs a bit extra per year and all the appartments in this house pay equal, its not much.
For all kinds of wooden waste as well as big items we have to pay depending of their weight.
This part of the calender also informs you about special recycling events. Like “Bring and take” day - you can bring any functional and not broken items and/or take whatever you want. At this year event we’ve got some “new” books, snow slide for kids and some beautiful vases.
Sorry all information is in German, but just that you get an idea on how serious Switzerland takes the topic of recycling:
And at the bottom part of it there is information on the things you can bring back to the store or special collecting points at the train stations.
E.g. when you buy any electrical stuff in Switzerland there is a moderate recycling fee already included in the price. So when you dont need any electrical thing any longer - you bring it back to any electrical store free of charge. The same is with batteries and plastic bottles - any store which sells them has to accept them back when they become waste. For glas and small metall items (like caps of all these glasses and bottles) there are containers at the train station. As it is quite loud when you throw things in them, there are special “opening hours” to use these containers, even if they are always standing there and accessible. We also have to bring for recycling the remaining oil after deep-frying something ?
So here is an overview of where to bring all the small items:
honesty, as working parents with two kids, it is somewhat complicated for us to follow all the days and places. Luckily, there is another option: you can bring all the special waste to the local recycling center and give it there up. So we have different containers in the balcony cupboard where we put different waste items. When any of containers is full (usually it is carton) then we put them all in a car and drive to the recycling station. There we put the waste things where they belong to. It is a very clean place with very frindly staff (yeah, they got five stars from me on Goolge Mapys ? Usually you drive in, open your car and even get some help (especially when you are alone with two kids and are happy about any extra hand!)))).
Let me know if you have any questions or wanna know more about recycling in Switzerland!
