How to do RECYCLING & DISPOSE OF WASTE in SWITZERLAND (and not get in trouble)

when you move to switzerland there are many things you need to learn like navigating swiss transport healthcare system and all the bureaucracy however there's another very important topic to master that i haven't yet talked about which is how to do recycling and dispose of your waste in switzerland in this video i'd like to tell you how and where to recycle different types of materials as well as how swiss waste management system works whether you are new to switzerland or you have lived here for a few years already i'm sure you'll learn something new today waste management in switzerland is based on the polluter pays principle this means that the polluters so us help to pay for the disposal and recycling of waste and it's done through things like taxes and bin bags and additional fees which are built into the cost of product that you buy since year 2000 switzerland stopped landfilling household waste which means that everything's either recycled or burned to produce energy recycling rates in switzerland have been going up through the years and in 2019 53 of solid municipal waste was recycled which is great however on the other hand switzerland is in the top three biggest waste producers per capita in europe so remember that in addition to recycling it's also important to reduce the amount of waste that you generate moving on to the rules of how to dispose of your waste each canton and municipality have slightly different rules about how to dispose of each type of rubbish even though i'll tell you what to expect from the system in general you should also find out the rubbish collection schedules and any specific rules for your municipality simply search for the share or app file which both mean waste and the name of the area that you live in each municipality will have all the information on their website sometimes you'll even receive leaflets through the post or some guidance from your landlord but no matter where you live the main principle is that you'll have to separate all the recyclable items from all the non-recyclable household waste let's start with the non-recyclable household waste for this in most municipalities you'll either need to use the taxed bin bags or the special tax stickers that you'll put on the normal rubbish bags except for the canton of geneva where you can use any rubbish bag that you want you can buy the tax bags and the tax stickers from the till or the customer service desk at any supermarket or even from kiosks they often have names for example in michtel it's called sac never and in zurich it's called zuri sak they will come in a role like this in the range of different sizes the standard sizes are 17 35 60 110 liters if your kitchen has a built-in bin similar to this then you'll probably need a 35 meter size price for these 35 liter bags really depends on where you live from what i've seen on the co-op website it could be as low as 850 and as high as 30 francs for the roll of 10 of these depending on where you live you'll dispose of your rubbish bags in one of those several ways in bigger cities or towns you'll probably have on the ground or under the ground rubbish collection points in smaller towns you might have door-to-door collection on specific days or you might have to take your waste to the waste disposal sign make sure to put only non-recyclable items in your bin bag not only is the right thing to do but also some items like batteries and electronics are actually illegal to be put into your rubbish bag in addition it's illegal to put untaxed and unsticked rubbish bags into the collection point that's designated for tax banks what i heard can happen is that the officials can open one of these illegal bags and search for any bills or letters that can help them to trace them back to the rule breaker and if they find that person they can charge them a very hefty fine of up to 10 000 francs in some municipalities in addition to paying for each bag of rubbish that you fill up in some places you also have to pay a waste management fee we didn't know that was really a thing until we got a bill for last year and that worked out to be around 10 francs per month now that i scared you by all the rules and the costs of bin bags let's move on to the recyclable items apart from the obvious glass metal and paper there are many other items that can be recycled in switzerland and the good news is that in most of the cases recycling is free if you're unsure about what you can recycle and where to do it check recyclingmap.ch you can search the map by area and also by the type of items to find the nearest disposal point it's really important to recycle properly if you contaminate the recycling stream with the wrong items the whole lot could just end up being incinerated which is both wasteful and ruining the recycling efforts of everyone else it's worth noting that doing recycling for loud items is only allowed during non-quiet time for example a neutral that is from 8 am to 8 pm from monday to saturday now we'll go through the most common types of recyclables and tell you how and where to dispose of them starting with glass this includes bottles and jars this does not include drinking glasses mirrors light bulbs and window glass depending on where you live glass is either collected by separate colors or all mixed together if separated there will be bins for just clear glass just brown glass and green glass which can then contain glass of different colours always rinse the glass items that you put into recycling you don't have to remove the labels as these will get burnt in the re-melting process dispose of your glass at the glass collection points on the street or the waste disposal site moving on to metal this includes drinks cans loads of jars and bottles tins pet food containers aluminium tube yogurt lids and foil this does not include aluminium coffee capsules composite materials like butter wrapping paper and scrap metal from construction rinse all the items and remove all the labels and crush these items if possible dispose of metal at the collection points on the street or the waste disposal site next is paper this includes newspapers brochures booklets and envelopes this does not include anything made of cardboard drinks cartons and in some instances paper carrier bags for books remove the cover and the glue it's fine for envelopes with windows it's best to rip out that plastic part avoid putting in recycling any paper that's very glossy or has any metallized parts or any glittery parts depending on where you live you can dispose of paper at the collection points on the street and the waste disposal site or it will be collected from door to door on specific collection days in the latter case you'll have to tie up your paper with a string to make a bundle or put your paper inside a paper carrier bag and again the rules for this very much depend on your municipality and some of them are quite strict about it so make sure you check all that information next is cardboard this includes boxes of thin and thick cardboard and egg boxes this does not include paper aluminium or plastic coated cardboard always flatten the boxes and remove any adhesive tape cut out all the greasy parts of the pizza boxes and only recycle the clean bits same as before dispose of your cardboard at collection points waste disposal site or in a bundle outside your door on specific collection days it's worth noting that in some places like a nurse style paper and cardboard is recycled together next is food and garden waste which is also called organic bio or green waste because this type of waste can be processed in one of two ways either to make biogas or to make compost it really varies what you can and can put into your green waste bin and that also depends on the municipality however in general biowaste includes kitchen waste and leftovers fruits vegetables ceilings eggshells coffee grounds and tea leaves grass cuttings water flowers and plants and small branches it definitely does not include anything made of paper plastic metal and glass compostable and biodegradable cutlery and tupperware cigarette buds cat litter and dog poo sometimes it's also allowed to put meat and fish with bones tea bags and christmas trees and bio-waste but you need to check locally to collect your food waste i recommend you get one of these food bins you can buy them from the supermarkets or you can buy them from home and diy stores for example this one is from jumbo but i know that in some places like geneva they actually give you the bin for free so you can look up whether that's the case in your municipality unless you are explicitly told not to do so you can use compostable bin liners however not all compostable bags are the same so it's best to buy the bags that have a checkered pattern on them as well as these logos on the packaging to make sure that they will definitely not cause any issues in your bio waste to dispose of your organic waste you need to find out whether your building has a special wheelie bin assigned to it this typically gets emptied weekly if your building doesn't have one you can sign up for it on your municipality's website obviously if all your neighbors agree to that as well or alternatively you can search for local on-street collection points which might be actually only available once a week so be aware of that or you can go to the waste disposal site moving on to pet bottles this includes only drinks bottles made of pt this does not include et bottles from oil and vinegar pt trays and any other plastic flatten the empty bottle and screw the cap on you can also leave the label on dispose of the bottles at the recycling station in your local supermarket or at the waste disposal site next is other plastic which is sometimes called here plastic bottles i have to admit it's a bit confusing here in terms of what can be recycled for other types of plastic but in general what seems to be true is that you can recycle any hard plastics this includes bottles from milk washing and cleaning products shampoos shower gels vinegar oil sauces and even plastic roll-on deodorants this does not include bt drinks bottles plastic bags plate and cutlery flatten the empty bottle if that's possible and screw the cap on dispose of this plastic at the recycling station in your local supermarket or the waste disposal site next are the beverage cartons also called tetra pack this includes patterns from juice milk milk alternatives soups and sauces with tetrapak logo flatten them and put the cap back on unfortunately currently there are only 100 places in switzerland where you can recycle these tetra packs and unfortunately nushtil is not one of them but maybe you're lucky and you have a place close to you so check on the recycling map next is textiles and shoes this includes clean and wearable clothing shoes and accessories linen down cushions and duvets and stuffed toys this does not include anything damaged or dirty mattresses cushions carpets ski shoes and skates put everything in closed bags and make sure that the shoes are tied together in pairs you can dispose of these at on-street collection points and these are often by the organization called texade so it's quite easy to spot or also at the waste disposal sites note that there are many items that can be recycled at the supermarket recycling stations for example led and energy saving light bulbs are the mini of coffee capsules and batteries and many things can be brought into the shops that sell the same types of items for example all the old electronics can be brought into electronic shops and all the old and unused drugs can be brought into the pharmacy don't forget that rather than recycling you can also sell your unwanted items on animes ricardo and facebook marketplace or also donate them to a charity shop or an on-street book box there's also another way to get rid of small furniture any household items like plant pots or clothes even and that's a method that i've only seen in switzerland you can just put out all that stuff outside of your house and put a little sign on it saying free and more often than not all this stuff is going to be gone in a day i know this video is quite long and maybe a bit overwhelming if you're new to recycling or recycling in switzerland but i hope that it gives you all the information you need to recycle and dispose of your waste properly many municipalities have apps with all the information and bin collection schedules and reminders so it might be worth downloading one of these if you're unsure about what and where you can recycle check the swiss recycling website and also the recycling map if you are unsure about whether certain packaging is recyclable also look for these swiss recycling logos once you get the hang of it you'll see that the recycling in switzerland is actually quite easy and you can even do it at the train station thank you for watching have a nice day wherever you are and see you in the next video next week bye

Channel: Our Swiss Adventure

Views: 10,639

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Id: P27Ex-WWpKY

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 14 2021