Thursday, April 19, 2012

Waste management

This post is about trash. It deserves an entire post as it is an entire PROCESS!
Recycling/waste management is a very serious affair in Germany.
We have 5 waste containers. Five!
(...and I do support recycling but we recycled in Baltimore and it was a "single-stream" recycle which was so EASY!).  This system does collect more items then we would have recycled in Baltimore.  It is a good system once you can finally figure out which trash goes where (I still have to refer to the instruction sheet!).  They encourage recycling by having you pay for your "black dustbin" trash which is everything that is not recyclable.
We sort our trash inside first and then transfer it to the larger bins outside and there are 4 different trash collectors that come for each specific type and they come on certain days of the month and it changes every month.  So... there is also a separate calendar for when the trash pick-ups occur!  The glass bottles/jars and tin must be taken to specific glass depositories that are on the side of the road throughout town and they must be sorted into brown, clear or green glass and tin. Whew!
Instruction sheet
for "bio-dustbin" or kitchen waste (i.e. food, eggshells, hair, feathers...)

"yellow bag" (light-weight packaging: plastic bottles, yogurt lids, milk cartons....)

yellow=wastepaper, green="black dustbin" (non-recylable trash), brown=glass bottles/jars


1 comment:

  1. Ha, ha, ha, ha...thank goodness you don't have a full time job. Wow!

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