Me, my husband and our toddler twins will be moving to Zürich in a couple of months, and I’m trying to learn as much as possible about the day to day local routine, rules and foresee the personal habits we’ll need to adjust while living over there.
One topic that is widely discussed in forums and with a couple of people we have talked to is the Trash/Waste disposal/Recycling rules. A lot is said about garbage disposal outside the house, but what about inside the house?
If I understood correctly (please let me know if I didn’t), the overall rule is that you need to take your non-recyclable trash bags out to the street bin only once a week, which is when the Garbage Collection pick them up. On the other hand, you can take your recyclable trash to places with available recyclable bins such as the Coop whenever you want.
And that’s where we got a bit puzzled. If you can’t take your non-recyclable trash out more than once per week, then you need to accumulate one week of organic food waste, dirty diapers (which in my case is a lot)etc, which can amount to a large volume in a family of 4 with 2 toddlers. On top of that, we got the impression, by looking at the photos of the apartments for rent, that there is usually a kitchen area, and that’s it - without an adjacent “service area” that is customary in some countries. So this leads to two questions:
- how do locals deal with the issue of the smell from non-recyclable trash accumulated for a whole week? Are the “Zuri-sacks” super efficient in blocking the odor?
- where is it customary to accumulate the filled-up “Zuri-sacks” (which we understand hold a standard volume of 35 l max) inside an apartment, given that there is no “service area”?
If you're in an apartment, then there will be a wheeled bin where you can put your bags. The _pickup_ isn't every day, but you don't have to keep "live in" garbage until pickup day.
If you're in a house then you'll also have a bin, just for your house.
(Disclaimer: this is for Basel, but I understand that the systems are similar)
Garbage pick up is twice per week (ie, Tuesday and Friday for my neighborhood) Bags should be put out only the evening before actual pick up day.
Zuri sacks come in various sizes. Here, I can buy 17 L & 35 L (possibly others, but I only buy the 17 L bags)
The biggest question will be where to store your recyclables until you can take them to the local drop off point. Coop/Migros/etc only take plastic-based products. Aluminum and glass deposits are located externally in each neighborhood. These can only be used 7 - 22, Monday - Saturday, and may be a few blocks' walk from where you live.
Also, paper is only picked up once per month. This should be left outside on the day of pick up, meaning that you will need some place to keep it until that day.
It is not a big deal, really, but does require some planning and fore-thought.
Where we live in Bern, there are bins in the parking garage labeled burnable household trash in the black plastic bags, recycle paper and compost. You can put stuff in the bins any day. The bins are put out on the street on the appropriate pick up day.
Bottles you have to take to glass recycling centers at various locations. Flattened PET bottles, batteries, water filters, etc. you can bring to the larger supermarkets and deposit in the appropriate container.
There are recycle centers for area residents for mattresses, furniture, electronics, etc.
You can get an info sheet with all this info from your community center (Gemeindehaus). You may even be able to get this info over your Gemeinde website, only in German most likely.
With the help of the info sheet and some experience you should get the hang of it pretty easily.
If you have a balcony then you can buy a good sealable container to put your ZüriSack and waste. The Zurisack are not particularly cheap so I fill them to the point they are bursting. Around 3 days trash. We have a big communal waste container where you deposit the ZuriSack and its emptied once a week. So you will have in your kitchen a waste container with your black sack. When its full put it in the Zurisack. We are lucky to have a garden so no problem with waste.
If you have no balcony then I don't know how you live with the trash.
You might also have a compost container for your house where you can deposit compost-old fruit etc etc.
And Zürisacks come in 17 litre size also.
More expensive apartments may have a service area.
Ask your neighbours how things are dealt with where you live, we just put the Zuni-sacke in one of the central bins when the bag is full regardless of the day (as does the whole street), As for Bio our landlord has hired a central bin where people throw in their bio waste 7 days a week. PET bottles, batteries and such I always take along on each walk to the supermarket so it never piles up, and glass/cans I just put in a bag in one of the cabinets to bring away every time the bag is full or I pass the collection point.
As for the zürisacke they also come in 60 liter ones if you want, but they are pretty sturdy and even the 35liter ones can hold quite some. They do not hold the smell (I assume you have a smell free special diaper bucket just like we do) Paper and cardboard gets collected at least every month so that never piles up quickly just be certain you make the nice piles of paper with the special rope.
Züri-Sack MUST be disposed into a wheely bin, container, or underground disposal site. So every house has a wheely bin, container, or a nearby underground disposal site.
At our place we have a guy who rides around on a bike and distributes all his waste at the rubbish bins at the tram and bus stops. He hangs about 10 sacks on his bike. That's Swiss ingenuity at its best.
He's called the " tinkle bell " man because he always rings his bike bell.