Life in Germany 1 – Recycling

And we are settled.

After 11-12 weeks living out of a backpack, I can finally unpack. I have not been complaining – this is what I signed up for. But with children in school, it’s easier for them to get ready in the morning out of a cupboard than out of a suitcase. Actually I lie about living out a backpack for 12 weeks. A few weeks ago I invested €7 at Kaufland and upgraded to “laundry basket”. And while we’re on How To Live Out Of A Suitcase, if you have a beanie, you can turn it upside down and use it as a socks and undies drawer. Sorted.

Anyway, I’ve been in Germany long enough to begin to understand some of the differences and to be in a position to blog about them. Today’s episode is about Recycling.

Typische Deutsche, oder?

All the Germans I’ve met are a bit self-deprecating about their national obsession with recycling. Yet even the Wry Grin crowd are all doing it, every Saturday. As a person who only ever votes on one issue, I think it’s fantastic and I wish, I wish, I WISH we recycled as much in New Zealand.

Here’s basically how it works in our little town:

• All week we put everything recyclable in one bin or basket or what have you. Some stuff you want to wash/rinse first, because it would stink after a week.
• “everything recyclable” includes EVERY type of plastic, even glad wrap.
• On Saturday morning you (get your kids to) separate the different types of plastic, tins, bottles, paper, card, tetra packs, etc.

• Then you drive down to the local Recycling Station. Ours is around a 1km from home, only open on Saturdays 9-1. If we miss 1pm, we can drive about 5km to the big down – theirs is open longer. Here’s ours:

• You put the different stuff in the different bins and go home.
• If you’re not sure what goes where there are dudes in high-vis vests on duty to help you. And they are helpful, even if you don’t sprechen much Deutsche. You can hold up a yoghurt container or a bacon packet and if they don’t show you where to put it it’s because they will do it for you, and they never, ever roll their eyes like it’s totally OBVIOUS this goes in the dosen aus metall bin, duh.
• Some have special bins for smaller inorganic stuff, and they ALL have bins for dead batteries.

It’s funny, when we were in France we were a bit surprised that the stereotype of dog poo all over the streets was, regrettably, true in Strasbourg at least. When they kids complained I told them that sure, in NZ there is good awareness about not letting your dog poo all over the street but we quite happily chuck our used up Duracells in the landfill with all their heavy metals, etc.

I don’t think Big Recycling is just a German phenomenon. When we stayed with P & H in Sweden, their apartment complex also had an awesome recycling shed with about 10 different bins for different types of material, all walking distance from their apartment.

Confronting your Waste

Another cool thing about Big Recycling is how, when sorting it, you are sort of forced to confront your waste. You created it, now deal with it. You can’t just throw it down a hole and never see it again.

Also, because no-one wants to give much house space to storing their recycling, this might even create a bit of consumer pressure on manufacturers who sell their goods in unnecessarily large containers. Yes, British supermarkets, I’m talking about your meat packets.

What do you think? If you’re not in Germany or NZ, what’s it like where you are? And if you’re in NZ, would you do it?

PS – I forgot the Bio Bin

Oops! And it’s pronounced “beeyo” bin. We have two “collected by the council” rubbish bins – these look like NZ stand-up wheelie bins. One is for landfill and the second is the Bio Bin for any plant or food waste. They are collected on alternate weeks.
Finally with both bins, you pay the council for a sticker to put on the bin each year – these look like old NZ car rego stickers. You can pay for an 80 litre bin or a 120 litre bin. Most weeks in Auckland our landfill bin was only 1/3 full, so here in Germany if you’re economical with your landfill you pay less. Fair enough!