Switzerland Travel Forum

well, Maybe I'm surprised about totally simple things, but well, that's not a secret , that for my country in East Eu, is far to run behind the other West EU countries.

During several my visits in CH, I've seen:
- once in Luzern streets were full of papers, boxes from offices full of papers, near the doors lots of bags with papers
- in Bern I've seen once maybe in 6 or 7 places huge bags, as they're used for the trash boxes, full of clothes, in several other places, little piles of clothes
- once again in Luzren ( if I remember well the location) I was going in streets and looking where I'm stepping, cause all around in the streets there were lots ( really looots ) of Printers, keyboards, displays, toasters, and etc. electrical things;


I already know that CH is reycling, very interested about BIO and EKO ideas... but.. is this the way you recycle all .. and gather all those things? :S Is it some kind of special days to put some kind of special thigns to streets, and then someone pick it up all, or what? That looked to me an intersting detail.. could someone explain me somthing more about these 'events' ?

bookmark

I'm not sure about the exact rules for Switzerland, which may also differ from city to city, but it will be more or less the same as in Germany.

Paper: Either each house has a separate bin for waste paper, or (which fits your observation) paper is collected once a month for recycling.

Clothes: Old clothes are usually collected by charity organisations. Clothes will then be sorted. The useles rags go to, for example, the production of paper. Those items in good shape will be given to needy people, either inland (the Red Cross, for example, has clothes storages where homeless and poor people can get what they need, either for free or for a very very small fee) or taken overseas to help after catastrophes, or - and this is the backside - sold to commercial merchants who then sell it in 3rd world countries for cheap, which ruins the local textile producers in these countries. Big problem, for example, in parts of Africa. This system isn't perfect.

Electrical devices: cannot be deposited in a normal rubbish dump for environmental reasons, this kind of garbage has to be taken special care of. These items can either be taken to a specialized collecting point all year round by the owner, or the city announces certain days when this stuff is officially collected - you were there on such a collection day.

Then there is "Sperrmüll" - bulky waste: Things that don't fit into the garbage bins, like furniture or similar. This is officially collected on certain days, maybe twice a year. People usually put their stuff out the evening before. Whoever wants something may take it for free. The streets are busy that night. Sometimes you find really nice things. (That's how I got the chair in my corridor, for example.)

We are getting there in the UK too: most councils have paper/glass collections, and some have plastic and cardboard collections as well. Some have 'garden waste' collections for composting.

There are also containers for glass/plastic/metal/clothes/shoes at various places: supermarket car parks and so on.

But clothes and other things either get thrown away or go to our 'charity shops'. There they are sold for money, which goes to the charity. these shops are really good places to find cheap clothes/books etc: I love them!

I really like the idea of putting unwanted things on the street once a year.....wish we would adopt that idea!

Switzerland is world champion in recycling. In fact, there are days where you can place paper and carton on the streets and it'll be picked up by the carbage collection service. Electrical/Electronic devices can be brought in any store selling those products (They're obliged to take back old pc's, displays, printers etc. and recycle them). Other than that we recycle plastic bottles, glass, aluminium and so on. Some people put old/not wanted anymore furniture on the street, hoping someone will want it and pick it up so you don't have to dispose it. It is astounding to see what other people will pick up :-)