I’m sure I’ve seen this video a while ago, but it seems posted a few days ago on YT:
I really wonder why bother dedicating 2 policemen to checking bins? I guess we could take that portion of their salaries to give free bin vouchers to everyone instead.
I remember that video because of the meat import section, starts 18m30s.
If the police were that zealous with fire hazard inspections…
If nobody broke these, or any other laws, we wouldn’t need Policemen at all - for anything.
It’s like the diving principle … safety
I see it’s not just Zurich that splurges on its bins, but also Lausanne.
The “shark” model was co-developed by some official Zurich city department – they cost about CHF 3-4k (per piece, installment not included) …
Edit:
I bet Lausanne can’t keep up with Zurich’s curbstones: CHF 420 per meter.
Source: NZZ
A local artist even produced a satirical booklet titled “Randsteinkult” about these curbstones: Publikationen | samvfurrer
It also works as a bomb shelter in case of need /s
TBH, these things are super durable. If you spread the cost over 100 years, they’re cheap. There’s 1 nearby my job, and it looks like the first time I went there. I could only hope I held up as well as Mr. Trash Can.
Except that they seem to dig up the road and replace them every 2 years.
I don’t think our village has one bin. Except maybe the poubelle in the office of the Greff.
Where do the dog-owners put their little “parcels”?
They – the cromium steel hulls – may last that long, technically, after exchanging the moving parts (e.g. hinges, if the monopoly company producing the Abfallhai still exists then), but if you believe that some future director of Zurich’s waste management department won’t scratch their itch for a novel design to leave their mark on the looks on some new™ functional™ fit-for-Zurich™ bin with Swiss Finish™ before the 100 years are up … well, I admire your optimism!
In fact, already in 2018 the city’s waste management department claimed the Abfallhai wasn’t zeitgemäss (fashionable?) anymore: Der Zürcher Abfallhai ist vom Aussterben bedroht – weil die Stadtverwaltung selber Designerin spielt (NZZ)
The new waste management director then claimed that the bin has too small of an opening …
Unrelated, of course, but I had a flashback to one of the books I had to read in my German (or was it French?) class probably, um, 30 years ago? “Topaze”, a play by Marcel Pagnol, which describes corruption, IIRC in waste management. Only 98 years ago.
A book that apparently left a mark on my neural network …
Related: Urs Pauli, who joined Zurich’s waste management department in 1997, was one corrupt director who even got sentenced: Urteil in der ERZ-Affäre: 24 Monate bedingt für Ex-Direktor Urs Pauli
I don’t even want to single out Zurich or the Abfallhai, but I believe that with power in office and with the reign over the budget funded by other-people’s-money (tax money) there just is temptation for corruption. Waste management seems to be very susceptible to this.
In Zurich, you can put the parcel into any waste bin. And you can put any old garbage into any “dog dedicated” bin, even if it’s labeled Robidog.
The stuff doesn’t get separated after collection and meets its eternal fire at the corresponding incinerator.
Yes, I know Zurich’s poo bins very well. I just wondered what they did with the parcelled-pooch-poo in Bowlie’s neck of the woods if there’s no bins. Poo bags in the pocket till you get home?
Oh, we’ve got two of those.
But I’m not certain how they get emptied. They do, just don’t know.
Unless your Gemeinde provides bags that biodegrade (which sounds messy, given enough time), your doggie bag just ends up in normal garbage.
We don’t need doggie do-do bags, but we need to deal with the kittie-litter.
I thought that was deliberate to stop people from putting large household waste items in
I read somewhere there is a law that you have to put that in your household waste, the chargeable sacks.
The cellulose cat litter makes fantastic compost when mixed and composted with household green waste.
Only if the compost gets north of 66C to kill toxoplasma and roundworm. Or use a Bokashi fermentation bin.
I’m an optimist sometimes, my fail 
I share the opinion of marton. I remember reading somewhere that the small opening of the “Sharks” is precisely to prevent abuse, meaning the disposal of house waste. It’s large enough for beverage bottles & cans and cigarette butts & packs.
I’m actually an optimist, too, just with politics I often struggle to keep that attitude.
Same same.
From the article mentioned earlier – Abfallhai: Der Zürcher Kult-Kübel ist vom Aussterben bedroht (gifted article link this time) – I learned that the city of Zurich actually got the Abfallhai for CHF 2k only in a special deal with the manufacturer.
But Daniel Aebli, then director of Zurich’s waste management indeed apparently felt the opening was too small:
Dass der neue ERZ-Direktor Daniel Aebli dem Kübel in einem Interview mit dem «Tages-Anzeiger» einen «Geburtsfehler» unterstellt hat, trifft ihn [CEO der Herstellers des Abfallhai] besonders. Aebli spielte auf den relativ schmalen Einwurf des Kübels an. Weil immer mehr Zürcher sich draussen verpflegten, fielen mehr und sperrigere Abfälle an, welche die Öffnung verstopften.
The fact that the new ERZ Director, Daniel Aebli, alleged a ‘birth defect’ in the bin during an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger particularly affects him [the CEO of the manufacturer of the Abfallhai]. Aebli was referring to the bin’s relatively narrow opening. Because more and more Zurich residents were eating outdoors, a larger volume of bulkier waste was being produced, which ended up clogging the opening.
Anyhow, since 2024 there’s a new director for Zurich’s waste management. Let’s see how long it takes him to come up with a new design for Zurich’s waste bins. 
