Recycling is mandatory here; it's not something that we do if we want to, or because we worry about the environment.
To ensure that recycling is done properly, and according to the municipality's rules, public containers are available only for paper and glass.
We assume that this is because the cost of the domestic garbage collection, that each house/apartment pays to the municipality, is based on the weight of the garbage produced, and not providing public containers or bins prevents people from, for instance, adding domestic garbage to these containers and thus paying less fees. But I guess you can still cheat and put garbage in the glass or paper containers if you want to, so this is a bit of a mystery!
This is how it works in Blaustein:
Domestic/non recyclable waste
Each house/apartment gets a garbage bin, provided by the municipality, that has a certain capacity (80L, 120L, etc - we can choose the type of bin we will use.). These garbage bins are stored in a closed space near the apartments. Seeing that the tax we pay to the municipality for the garbage collection is based on the capacity of the bin (the weight), if we produce more garbage than we are suppose to we will pay a fine.This is why each garbage bin has a lock! - we wouldn't want other people putting their garbage in our bin, now would we?!
The yellow bag
This bag is provided by the municipality as well and, like the yellow containers in Portugal, it's for metal and plastics. But not all plastics and metals! Water bottles, plastic beer bottles or cans can be returned to the supermarket. Each supermarket has a reverse vending machine and we get €0.25 for each bottle/can we deposit. The receipt the machine gives back can be used against the value of our next purchase or exchanged by money.
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| Image from here |
Public garbage containers
Available for paper and glass (brown glass, white glass and green glass) - we have to sort the glass before putting it in the containers. Glass beer bottles can also be deposited in the reverse vending machines at the supermarkets.
The collection of garbage is done every 14 days, both for the domestic garbage and the yellow bag. Every other Sunday or early Monday we have to go to the "bin's storage room" and drag our domestic garbage bin outside to the walk.
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| Image from here |
Here is where the stinckiness begins. While having the garbage bins in the sidewalk isn't much of a bother, the yellow bags are a different story. The collection of the yellow bags is done every other Thursday. This is what happens on the Wednesday before.
These photos were taken in Ulm; in Herrlingen the piles of yellow bags are a bit smaller but it still is a nasty sight! Also, in Herrlingen people only put these bags outside when they are suppose to. In Ulm you can see the bags in the sidewalks for almost a week sometimes.
The storage of the yellow bag between collections is also a bit of a problem. We still haven't figured out the best way to do it. For now we have the bag in the balcony. We pondered buying a big garbage bin and have it in the kitchen - but then the eventual smell could become a problem. Maybe we'll just buy a big bin and put it in the balcony. Or store it in our basement! We have been trying to see what other people do but we haven't been able to reach any conclusion!