Thanks JPrice for the summary, and yeah I still think a waste disposal course should be offered to new-comers, esp. non-German speaking ones I had a great time at Migros counter trying to purchase the "licensed garbage bag".
I once bought this frozen chicken meat in a fancy plastic tray. The tray was soaked with the chicken juice and it stinks after few hours outside the freezer. I told my partner that tray should now counted as grünabfall and should go into the compost bag (either that, or having a super smelly sack that will take another week to be filled up and thrown out!).
Incredibly helpful post. We have just arrived and have been somewhat baffled by the complexity. Thanks!
Thanks for this writeup. It's mind-blowing how complicated they make recycling in Swiss Alemanique. In Vaud you just toss all your stuff into big green recycling boxes that are everywhere, no twine, no nonsense. I never had to worry about what type of paper I was putting in the recycle before!
We have big gray containers outside my building in Altstetten for paper and cardboard (and a few other things) but I haven't had the courage yet to look inside and see if you have to ball everything up with twine, or if you can just chuck everything in like in Vaud...
Hi Everyone!
Any advice on companies to use if the recycling team decided not to take away the cardboard today? It must have been too big or bulky and is now soaking wet! :/ Instead of taking all the rest and leaving the big thing, they just left it all..
Any suggestions of private companies who might come and take it away? I don't really want to bring it all back in to the cellar for another month
Thanks all!!
Hi,
Thank you for this thread, very informative!
I have some card food packaging with the attached symbol (a black square with a white bag). Is this recyclable?
Best
Andrei
No, that means you should throw it away. The symbol represents a rubbish bag.
Thank you Hannah,
I just wanted to double check.
Best
Andrei
I guess it is late but you can also take it to cargo-tram. It is only once a month though.
In fact, we have some old cooking pans in Keller and have no idea where should we throw them away. Does anyone know where could we dispose them?
if they are still decent/usable, just leave them outside and someone is bound to pick them up.
if they are really horrible just put them in the normal bin - if they can be recycled they will do it for you.
I get a lot of unaddressed advertising in the mail (flyers from the supermarkets, newspapers that I never subscribed to) despite having a no advertising sticker on my mailbox. One day, I caught the postman from the Swiss Post putting such advertising in my mailbox and asked him why he does not respect my sticker. He said the sticker does not matter to him, since he has order from above to distribute the flyers. There seem to be only two options to dispose of those unwanted mailings, either in the official paid trash bags at my own expense, or neatly stack and bind them (and put a decorative ribbon on them ) at my own time expense, I was wondering if there exists a third option: Since the Swiss Post disposes junk in my mailbox, does this give me the right to collect dispose these mailings into their yellow mailboxes?
Very clear and very useful indeed !
As few posters already pointed out I think a lot of people don't actually understand the idea of Zurisacks. They contain recycling fee for a reason and therefore using them for all waste (except maybe medics and chemicals etc.) instead of recycling yourself has nothing to do about not caring for the environment. Its just a choice that someone else is doing the recycling for you with added cost.
Not saying that recycling yourself wouldn't be good idea and can also save a bit of money but its not more environmentally friendly as long as zurisacks recycling works as they are advertised.
Why are then some people fined for having paper in them?
Cargo tram
Dumb question about the composting rubbish that goes in the green bin.
Should it go into the big green communal bin as it is? I see some people just throw the stuff in, but others have the biodegradable rubbish in bags in the green bin.
Kinda seems crazy to put biodegradable stuff in a non biodegradable bag
Apologies, just found the answer to my own question here:
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/...te.secure.html
Only put biodegradable waste into the green bin, not in bags
I've been told that we can put our bio, organic, waste into a plastic bag and put it straight into composting/bio bins. I can't understand why they allow the plastic bag containing it?
You've been told wrong. You can't use usual plastic bags for this kind of stuff. There are garbage bags for composting bins at any supermarket. It is indeed plastic bags, but from different kind of plastic that will decompose in a couple of weeks.
Another question: You put all garbage in ZuriSack, because you have to. But as I understand there are no obligation on composting bin level, right? In link 2 messages above they say you need bags with special label on it (grid imprint), but it's been basically proposing not demanding. I can buy any bio-compost bags in Germany and in won't be a problem. Am I correct?
Thanks, that is what I expected to be the case but it seems around here people are not taking care to use the proper bags.