For the Love of Trash
One thing you'll come across in a typical Third World country is the trash. I really hate to say it, but it's a defining feature of the Third World, whether we're talking about the Bagmati River in Katmandu or any improv landfill to be found in Tanzania. People need to deal with their trash, whether they like it or not.
In other places, like the U.S., people are half-hearted about the trash problem. There are still too many disposables. Every now and then, states will put a deposit on a bottle. The separation of trash isn't anywhere where it's supposed to be, although I could be wrong. For all I know, people might be separating the trash as soon as it's left the garbage truck. In the U.S., people know very well whether they are talking about a trash item and a recyclable item. Whether they have the will to separate these (please, no segregation jokes here), is another question.
Then there's Europe and Germany. The Germans worship trash the way Americans worship guns. Back in the day, you would put a green dot on items to be recycled. That means that you would take can, container or wrapper, throw it all into one big yellow bag and have the trash collectors gather it all up. This was as far back as the 90's, as I recall.
Nowadays, things are slightly different, although the principle remains the same: separate your trash, save your damn resources. And don't let us catch you not doing it.
For beginners, there's the glass bin. You have three sectors within the bin for white, brown, and yellow glass. This is an easy and perfectly legal way for Germans to break something and not only get away with it but be seen as fulfilling your civic duty. My kids love throwing glass bottles into the bins. A food fight couldn't be more fun. Oh, and no lids and bottle caps, please. Different bin for them, as in metal.
Next come the plastic and glass bottles that you need to return for a deposit. Back in the day, you used to have some guy take back your bottle, sign a slip of paper, and you could redeem your returned plastic or glass bottles for cash. Not so anymore, because that's what the good trash lord invented robots for. Today, you return your bottle to the supermarket, insert it into a machine mouth first, and voila, the machine does the rest. Bottle accepted, here's your receipt, retrieve when it's time to check out with the cashier.
If you are too lazy to return your bottles and 20 cents is not enough of an incentive to head back to your local supermarket, you can leave them near a public trash bin, where they will be picked up more quickly than you can say homeless guy with a drinking problem.
Which leads us to the plastic bins outside of your house. These come in different colors: brown, blue, yellow, and black. Brown (sometimes green) is for biodegradable waste. Blue is for paper. Yellow is for packaging, usually metal or plastic (make sure you wash out the containers first!), see the former 'green dot' system. Black is for everything else, whatever that means. Hazardous waste comes to mind here.
What do you do with big-ticket items, like furniture or that old mattress you've been dying to get rid of? Here in Germany, there are designated spots to have these collected, also known as 'Sperrmüll'.
Finally, old clothes can be donated at any of the thousands of metal bins set up by numbers of charity groups. Take your clothes, wrap them in a plastic bag, and say Auf Wiedersehen to your moth colonies.
And careful, Germans have laws against illegal recycling or placing your old flea-ridden sofa on the sidewalk. Your tax (or trash) euros at work.
In other places, like the U.S., people are half-hearted about the trash problem. There are still too many disposables. Every now and then, states will put a deposit on a bottle. The separation of trash isn't anywhere where it's supposed to be, although I could be wrong. For all I know, people might be separating the trash as soon as it's left the garbage truck. In the U.S., people know very well whether they are talking about a trash item and a recyclable item. Whether they have the will to separate these (please, no segregation jokes here), is another question.
Then there's Europe and Germany. The Germans worship trash the way Americans worship guns. Back in the day, you would put a green dot on items to be recycled. That means that you would take can, container or wrapper, throw it all into one big yellow bag and have the trash collectors gather it all up. This was as far back as the 90's, as I recall.
Nowadays, things are slightly different, although the principle remains the same: separate your trash, save your damn resources. And don't let us catch you not doing it.
For beginners, there's the glass bin. You have three sectors within the bin for white, brown, and yellow glass. This is an easy and perfectly legal way for Germans to break something and not only get away with it but be seen as fulfilling your civic duty. My kids love throwing glass bottles into the bins. A food fight couldn't be more fun. Oh, and no lids and bottle caps, please. Different bin for them, as in metal.
Next come the plastic and glass bottles that you need to return for a deposit. Back in the day, you used to have some guy take back your bottle, sign a slip of paper, and you could redeem your returned plastic or glass bottles for cash. Not so anymore, because that's what the good trash lord invented robots for. Today, you return your bottle to the supermarket, insert it into a machine mouth first, and voila, the machine does the rest. Bottle accepted, here's your receipt, retrieve when it's time to check out with the cashier.
If you are too lazy to return your bottles and 20 cents is not enough of an incentive to head back to your local supermarket, you can leave them near a public trash bin, where they will be picked up more quickly than you can say homeless guy with a drinking problem.
Which leads us to the plastic bins outside of your house. These come in different colors: brown, blue, yellow, and black. Brown (sometimes green) is for biodegradable waste. Blue is for paper. Yellow is for packaging, usually metal or plastic (make sure you wash out the containers first!), see the former 'green dot' system. Black is for everything else, whatever that means. Hazardous waste comes to mind here.
What do you do with big-ticket items, like furniture or that old mattress you've been dying to get rid of? Here in Germany, there are designated spots to have these collected, also known as 'Sperrmüll'.
Finally, old clothes can be donated at any of the thousands of metal bins set up by numbers of charity groups. Take your clothes, wrap them in a plastic bag, and say Auf Wiedersehen to your moth colonies.
And careful, Germans have laws against illegal recycling or placing your old flea-ridden sofa on the sidewalk. Your tax (or trash) euros at work.
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