Cultural Differences 001: Trash.

TRASH....who would think trash could cause a girl such a headache?  I found an article online that describes the German trash system in detail and trust me ALL THESE RULES APPLY!!!.....read at your own risk! 


Let's start with the easy stuff: glass. Any kind of bottle or glass jar that is non-returnable and on which you did not pay a deposit or "Pfand", belongs in the designated glass bins. This includes wine bottles, jam/preserve jars, oil bottles, juice bottles and even bath-salt bottles. Ceramics, china, mirrors and wine corks do not belong in the glass bins. Glass is sorted by color. There are different slots for depositing green, brown and clear glass. You will find these bins dotted over every neighborhood. The only thing to take note of here is the times when you should not recycle. Remember Quiet Time? That is not the time to recycle your bottles or you will have a couple of very irate neighbors on your hands.

The other bins you will encounter are usually at your doorstep, and are color coded; green, blue, yellow, brown and gray. Sometimes the whole bin is the color in question, sometimes just the lid. The color of the lid is key. It's important to note that not all municipalities have the exact same system. You may not find a brown or yellow bin at your doorstep, for example. And paper will probably go into a blue bin. In the absence of a yellow bin, households may have to put plastic materials into a yellow plastic bag (Gelb Sack). This bag is then placed outside for collection at regularly scheduled times. The bags can be picked up in various places throughout a community - at a nearby kiosk or at other stores.

Paper is also entry-level recycling: all packaging made of paper and cardboard, newspapers, magazines, waste paper, paper bags, etc, etc. (you've got the idea?) belong in the blue bins. Tissues, however, do not belong here. Read on to find their place in the scheme of things. If you don't have a blue bin at your home, you will certainly find one somewhere in your neighborhood. You are supposed to flatten boxes before putting them in the bin, and make sure you throw only the box and not the plastic wrappers inside the box, in the bin.

It is now time to move on to the more advanced level: the yellow Bins and the Green Dot. Cans, plastic, polystyrene, aluminum, tinplate and "composite" materials like beverage cartons made of a mixture of materials belong in the yellow bin or should be put in the yellow bags. Empty spray cans are also allowed here. You are not supposed to put stuff inside each other, like the yogurt cup inside the baked beans tin. And lastly, spare a thought for the end process: this stuff gets sorted by hand. A kind request has been made to rinse the cans and cups before throwing them in the bin. No need to scrub, just a light rinse.

Now you are left with the "other stuff" and biological waste, which by the way, makes up almost 50 percent of the total garbage produced in Germany. Bio stuff is anything destined for the compost heap in a good gardener's back yard. This includes kitchen scraps, peels, leftover food, coffee filters, tea bags and garden waste. If you live in a house, you probably will have a separate brown bin for this. The end result of bio recycling is either energy through the natural fermenting gasses, which is captured and utilized, or garden compost. So this is good stuff to recycle, albeit a bit smelly at times. The brown bins do, however, get emptied very regularly during the summer months. Nevertheless, keep the bin far from your kitchen window!

If you are not fortunate enough to have a separate brown bin and don't feel like making your own compost heap, you are allowed to throw the bio stuff in your household waste bin, the gray one. This bin is also the destiny of, finally, "almost the rest". This includes ash, cigarette butts, old household objects like hairbrushes and frying pans, textiles and nylon stockings, nappies/diapers, tissues, other personal hygiene items, extremely dirty paper, etc. Everything in the gray bins will be incinerated.

In this very advanced section of recycle know-how, we are really left with "the rest", i.e. the stuff that did not feature anywhere else. That is the hazardous waste, which includes fluorescent tubes, batteries and acids, cans of paint still containing paint, thinners, adhesives, corrosives, disinfectants, insecticides, and so forth, has to be treated as hazardous waste. You will receive a notice from your local town council on when and where the truck collecting this kind of waste, will be. You need to bring your stuff to the site for them to dispose of it in the proper manner. If this waste ends up in the gray bin, it will be burnt with the rest of the "gray" waste, which could result in extremely poisonous gasses.

Batteries are disposed of separately. Look out for a small bin (it looks like a small garbage bin) at your local shopping area. You can deposit your used batteries here for proper disposal.

If you are still left with something you would like to throw away (heaven forbid!) and do not think that it belongs on the "Trödelmarkt"/fleamarket, you have the opportunity at certain announced times to place your stuff outside when Sonstige- or Sperrmüll (miscellaneous items) will be gathered. This could include a sofa, broken hi-fi, chairs, building materials, etc. The funny thing is that not much of this stuff ends up on the garbage dump since many second hand dealers or "collectors" drive round the neighborhood to inspect the thrown out stuff. The majority of it gets loaded into private vans long before the municipal vans come around!

Another useful feature of the waste disposal system in most cities is the Recyclinghof, an outlying area to which you can transport your trash and Spermüll with your car. They are equipped with containers for the deposit of such things as furniture, batteries, electrical and electronic items, paper, plastic, cans, glass, wood and garden waste, The personnel there can guide you to the proper bin.


They do indeed, love to separate everything you can imagine....batteries, paper, lids, glass, plastics, food, aluminum, tennis shoes, coffee filters.....once I again I say everything! 


Just wanted to give you some differences between the good ol' US of A and Germany. I will be back with more.