Laowai

I’m learning about recycling. The Swiss, as you may have heard, are super devoted recyclers. Today was the first paper collection day so I made my first neat little bundle of paper and tied it up with string. Here are a few shots to show just how neat and tidy the piles of paper are. 

Also, they are very strict about how and when things are recycled. This sign is posted at a glass and metal recycling spot – basically just a series of big bins along a quiet neighborhood road. There is a bin each for aluminum cans and brown, green and clear glass. As you can probably see, the sign says you cannot recycle on Sunday and you cannot recycle around lunch time.

So much to learn. Even the little foil top to a yogurt container should be recycled – but I haven’t figured out exactly where yet. I have been shocked that so far we have been able keep ourselves to just one small garbage bag per week. It’s a much smaller garbage bag than ones I used back in the US and it costs a couple Swiss Francs to put each bag out in the dumpster. You should have seen how excited I was when we discovered a styrofoam recycling bin very close to our apartment. We have a bunch of styrofoam left over from our IKEA furniture packaging. Wooo hoooo – that’s Swiss style excitment.