To a Finn the German system sounds like a bizarre mixture of our system and the American one. Here you don't have to roll your trashcans anywhere. They're usually located (sometimes in a shed or hidden behind a small wall) near the street so the garbage trucks can easily empty them when they arrive. We do have basically the same amount of sorting though. The amount of trash cans usually depends on the type of building. Homeowners have to pay for different types of cans, so they usually tend to have just one or two and take the rest to a public sorting station. But large apartment buildings can have separate cans for plastic, paper, cardboard, glass, metal and miscellaneous. (The latter will end up in a waste-to-energy facility, so in one way or another, everything gets recycled.) Ps. You can usually get biowaste containers with active charcoal filters, that will eliminate the smell.)
We saw that Finland is consistently one of the most green countries in the world so this is a very interesting perspective! I really like the idea of the trashcans already being located in a specific location where the garbage trucks can easily pick them up without you having to roll them around everywhere. Really appreciate the tip about the active charcoal filters. We of course have nothing like this we have seen or have had to use in the US so our bio trash really can stink...haha, we will most definitely have to look into those. Thanks!
@@PassportTwo the thing is that not everyone here in germany has a little garden or driveway in front of his house where he would be able to store 3 different trashcans close to the road. When you live in a newer house that was build in the 70s, 80s or 90s you might have the luxury to have a small garden in front of it, a garage or a carport, but most of the little villages-especially the centers are hundreds of years old and have small and narrow streets (sometimes even with cobblestones) with tiny houses that were build very close to the street and there is hardly enough space for a decent sidewalk. It´s nearly impossible to build little walls or sheds for 3 or more trashcans in front of these houses and thats why many people keep them in their backyards or garages.
@Dax arms Hopefully you are simply trying to be sarcastically funny. If not, just remember that a burn pit creates toxic fumes if you burn plastics, batteries, printed papers with large scale photos, etc. It contaminates the soil in the burn pit. Glass cracks and splinters in fires. Metalic rest waste coalesces into fused lumps difficult to separate from the soil, which might poison it with toxic levels of heavy metals. Laminated milk or other liquid storage cartons often have metalic foils in them, again covered in plastics. Wires are coated plastics. Also, a burn pit needs fuel because many of the trash wastes do not burn sufficiently on their own. So you are also wasting additional fuel. As such, it sounds like you, dear dax arms, need a good brain.
A really important point - please recycle used batteries (or bring them to collection stations in nearly all super markets) and old electronic equipment (kaputt Handys [smartphones] 😂 or radios or such). Batteries often contain nasty stuff and batteries and electronics are full of resources like rare earths and gold.. As landfills are not allowed in the EU these things will get incinerated if you put them in your normal household waste container and will be lost forever. You are a nice couple - stay the way you are 👍
You don´t need to cleanup the Plastic-Waste ... cause the Water is a valuable Ressource. And on the Yellow Bag there is mostly a List of Items you could trow inside.
Ya, we've been told by some that we do need to rinse and some say it is a waste of time and water. For now we have decided to do it just so the stuff doesn't start to stink in the bag over time. Thanks for the info! 😊
@@PassportTwo It´s nice that you try to make the life of the collectors a little bit better, but it is really not necessary. Stop using the water. Greetings from a garbage collector :)
Don't wash the items before trowing them away! Safe water! Always! !!! Water is so important. Trow the trash away and bring it outside! Trash in the house brings insekts and Rats inside. Buy as less trash as possible!
@@PassportTwo to clean the Plastic-Waste (z.b. Joghurt-Becher) is good for the Plantworkers. I was there once and its stinking not so much when you clean your waste. its only about to safe the workers.
Nice video. I'm American and I've lived in Germany for 8 years. I will agree, at first, it seemed quite daunting because it is a complex system. It is surprising how many Germans don't understand it. But there is a simple way to explain it and that really only comes through experience. 1. All plastic, metal and tetra pack goes into the Gelber Sack, 2. All clean paper - and only paper goes into the blue container, 3. Anything organic goes into the Biotonne. You can wrap rotten meat in a paper towel and put it into the Biotonne. Finally, anything not covered up to this point goes into the Grauetonne (no glass). Did anybody need a 33 page manual for that?
In some areas, meat and boiled vegetables go into the black container, not the brown (which is green in my city). And papertowels are not paper but cellulose, so they are not for the blue bin. Yes.. Glass goes to the glasscontainers, BUT only glassbottles and jars. Other glasses like windows or vases not. Here we also have an orange bin for electronics (still at experimental stage). Oh.. instead of these yellow sacs we have yellow bins. Sometimes i have the feeling, I have to study a semester or two, to get it really...
(Assuming it works roughly the same in Germany as in the Netherlands!) Large quantities can be disposed off at your local "recyclinghof" or "wertstoffhof" (In Dutch we call it a "milieu park") You have to bring it yourself. You dump it in a large container specifically meant for certain waste. We have like 4 different types of wooden waste alone I believe. In the NL we can bring a certain amount of weight per year for free (like 200kg). However, for some types you always have to pay. We have cut down 4 trees from our backyard. Disposing of it by using the trashcontainers is just impossible. In such occasions you bring it in yourself
yes, typically every bigger village has a "Wertstoffhof" or "Recyclinghof" where you can bring your stuff. Depending on the size of the village, they do have specific opening times, which you do have to keep in mind though. In my village for example it is only open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8 to 12 in the morning. But you do have people working there, during that time, that can help you sort things out. Usually you also have a regional one, that is open more frequently, but it only makes sense to go there, if you have a LOT of stuff. If you know you have a big renovation or something like that in the future, you can also call up the local recycling company and you can rent an open container, where you can just throw your stuff in and (depending of the stuff) you either pay for the weight or the volume, once the container is taken away. You do need to have the space for a container obviously...
"Bulky waste" is picked up in some regions by prior registration (about 6 weeks waiting period) others still have regular collection days. Attention, for things that are still working or are still to use, there is also the option to give them away at the social department store or they are picked up (often led by the AWO or the DRK).
"What happens if you don't do it correctly?" Depends on where you live. If you throw everything in one bin and you have to share it with your neighbours, they soon will start to complain. If you have your own bin and you don't do it correctly it could happen that the garbage men take notice and complain. From my own experience I can tell you, don't make your garbage men mad at you! My parents ignored their advice and learned it the hard way by finding the content of their garbage bin all over their entrance.
They complain since the Misc trash disposal you pay with hard earned money, a lot. That is why they start to complain. And every overfilled trash bin costs a fine. So most of us follow the rules just because there are more nice ways to "waste" money.
When you start to recycle for real it doesnt take long to see hos much packaging we use. In our home here in Sweden we recycle biocompost ( becomes fuel), paper, plastic, carton, glass, metal, batteries, light sources, electric stuff and misc (that will be burnt). We also turn in left over meds to the farmacis and fabric that is to bad to give away back to the stores to be made into new fabric. And the the ”pant” system that give you money for the PET bottles and soda cans.
Seems the same as in Germany. Btw. your name is so swedish, it possibly can't be more swedish than that, which is meant nicely to prevent misconceptions I might add. :-)
Tip: use very small bio degradable bags for BIO. That way it won't start to smell as bad as if it was a big one, because you have to bring it out to the big trash can more often. Into the yellow bags, at least where I live, you also throw metals in. Cans, lids from glass jars, joghurts or bottles e.g. and aluminum foil also belongs in there. I don't know about the U.S., but I think in our envelopes with a window it's not plastic in a lot of cases. It's see threw paper like parchment. Just check it with the feel between your fingertips or take a lighter/match. Plastic would melt, while paper would obviously burn.
This is how I deal with food waste at home (South Korea): 1. Keep it in a plastic bag or container, in the freezer. 2. Take it out when it's time to waste outside. I promise you, it's fantastic. Also, you can keep track of how much food waste you produce in a certain amount of time.
@John MacCormack - I live in Canada and during the warmer months, I also freeze my organic waste until the evening before or the morning of pick up day. Otherwise maggots develop in the outside bin and that's disgusting. South Korea recycles 95% of its food waste so that's probably what snappin meant.
Well done my friends, I love the presentation. They added a few more pages since I had that book in Schweinfurt. I remember saying to myself, wow this book has 21 1/2 pages lol. Recycling had stayed with me even though I am living in the states. We don't recycle near as much but we do separate the plastics, glasses, etc. :).
5:00 - You don't have to seperate metal and plastic anymore. The Grüner Sack (green sack) was the brother of the yellow one and supposed for metal but now it's done magnetically and both gets into the yellow one. Also, you don't have to rinse plastic. At least in Bavaria^^
We have both a stationary and a mobile "Wertstoffhof". Once a month they come to a place in the city and you can bring your "Elektroschrott" (e.g. washing machine, TV) and "Problemabfall" (e.g. flourescent lamps, chemicals). "Sperrmüll" (= bulky, movable furnishings) is for free up to a size of one cubic meter. If you have more/it exceeds the limit it will cost you 10€/cubic meter.
Can't you bring these electric devices back to the store? In Switzerland the the price for the disposal of these products is already included when you buy it.
@@Leenapanther I don't know if you can bring them back, but IIRC e.g. the stores offer to take and dispose the old devices when they deliver the new purchased ones.
The thing about fines for too much miscellaneous trash keeping the lid open... The yearly fee you pay for trash depends on the size of the bin you have. If you need more volume you can ask for bigger/more bins. As I don’t have as much miscellaneous trash, I had a spacer put in to reduce the bins volume and pay less fees (with apartments you don’t really get that choice and the fee is shared by all tenants through the rent). Hence, if you regularly overflow the trash, they will ask higher fees. This doesn’t apply to the paper bins, as that is actually a resource to them. The yellow bags (some regions do have bins or containers for those as well) is a tad more complicated. It is part of the dual system (the yin yang style arrow on lots of packaging, called “Grüner Punkt“ - green dot). It’s a law from the 90’s, in which the manufacturers are required to pay for the recycling or disposal of their products. That’s why you get those yellow bags for free at your townhall or such. The trash has already been paid for.
Nice! Thanks so much for all this information! We were actually wondering if we would have to pay for more yellow bags...nice to know we don’t have to 😊
hi you two :) just a tipp: the ONLY trash you legally have to separate is the so called " Sondermüll ". Enviromental hazardous stuff like batteries, motor oil, some kinds of paint, old meds etc. . Everything else CAN go into the grey bin! Everything recyclable CAN go into the yellow bag (even old cola bottles) or glass.. bio into bio or grey.... etc. The best reason to separate trash is just to safe money cause everything that can disposed elsewhere does not fill your grey bin. The smaller your bin- the less you pay! If your town charges you for the bio box show them your middle finger and decompose it by yourself or ask the next best farmer near your neighborhood for the way to the local BGA. If they charge you for paper or anything else show them the middle finger and just use the public Trashcan in the town next to you! They have the same shape/size like glass containers just with a blue emblem, usually they stand right next to the glass containers. There is even more that can be separated , old clothing for example. Boxes for old Shoes and Clothing can be found near your next Red Cross Station or Fire department. This way you also fund the red cross organisation because old clothing can be reused by refugee camps or scrapped down and sold as recycling material. either way you do something good. For big stuff like old furniture or large electro items like washer, dryer, fridges, ovens, car tyres etc you can report " Sperrmüll " to your disposal service. They will set up an appointment to pick the stuff up and charge you for that but 500kg are usually free. Hint: Don't make that public cause your neighbours will put their stuff right beside it and you get charged for their trash! Seriously if you set up a Sperrmüll appointment GUARD YOUR TRASH! By the way it may help to look for the " Grüner Punkt " on stuff you buy at your local supermarket. Its a green dot formed by a bright and dark green arrow. It's one of the indicators for stuff to go into the yellow bag. (old joke from the 90's : what has a Chinese and the green dot in common ? a yellow bag! ) If you happen to run out of yellow bags or loose your ticket to get more at your " Bürgeramt " you just have to request them at the Disposal Service and you get them for free. anyways... if you have to pay for more then the grey bin, don't make up with that Sh....!
Bei uns werden Medikamente nicht beim Sondermüll angenommen, es heißt das soll in den Restmüll. Und ich habe gehört manche Apotheker sagen sogar man soll das Zeug einfach ins Klo schütten bevor man die Fläschchen oder Packungen wegwirft. Ich finde beides extrem unverantwortlich. Übrigens, wohnst du im selben Ort wie die beiden? Ansonsten haben Mülltipps in Deutschland ja gar nicht viel Sinn, da es in jeder Gemeinde (oder in jedem Landkreis) große Unterschiede geben kann. Die Sache mit alten Kleidern und Textilien ist auch sehr uneinheitlich, ich habe kürzlich erst deswegen nachgeforscht und nach zwei Stunden stöbern in Foren und bei Ratgebern wußte ich weniger als zuvor. Meistens sind ja wirklich nur neuwertige Sachen erwünscht und obwohl manche Leute behaupten man könnte auch unbrauchbare Textilien zum recyclen reintun ist es wohl eher so dass der Aufwand des sortierens und verarbeitens den Nutzen bei weitem übersteigt also bleibt meist nur die normale Mülltonne, da sind meine beiden Schlafsäcke dann leider auch gelandet.
Thank you so much! We have really enjoyed being here so far and look forward to exploring more. Also, I do apologize. Ich lerne in Kaiserslautern Deutsch, aber es ist noch nicht sehr gut. Hoffentlich kann ich bald auf Deutsch antworten.
So each trash-bin has it's history. The plastic bin in fact was the effect of a law which was designed to reduce waste. The law originally said that you are allowed to give back the packaging to the store where you baught it. So the stores decided to organize a collection system for the packaging. Everybody who sells packaging contributs to it. The "grüner Punkt" sign on a packaging tells you that the fee for the packaging collection was paid. For the miscellanius bin, it's you who pay the collection. So it is in your own interest to minimize the amount of trash in the miscellanious bin. The system varies from city to city. In some cities, the grey trash bin is weighted and you pay per weight. In our town, we pay per collection. So we have the opportunity to empty it every two weeks, but we save money if we put it only every four weeks (it is about 10 Euros per collection)
I saw a huge mistake! 😅😅😅 you should take out the metal caps from those glasses and then throw them in containers, its dangerous for the people working in recycling to get the caps out of broken glasses. Thats why you see many caps on those glass containers 🌺🌺🌺
Please believe me - nobody in glass recycling companies here touches glass 😉 I have visited such a plant some time ago and even then - all the glass container content is broken first, then all caps are filtered out by huge magnets and corks of wine bottles are separated by a water bath. Metal caps are sold on to steel mills or aluminium smelters.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I love what you are saying! And thanks for separating your trash here. Only the background music in the video is so annoying? Granted, I think that music is always annoying in videos that are not music videos but the music here seems to be louder/less in the background compared to the speech loudness and also musically more annoying than in other videos. But maybe I am alone here, so maybe others can share their impressions as well.
Thanks for the feedback, we will consider this on our next video and see what we can possibly change to improve! Still appreciate you watching though 😊
About the fines and what not. Plastic, paper, glass and biodegradeble waste is most of the time really easy to tell what goes where. And a general rule of thumb should be if you are uncertain it is miscellaneous. I had a flat mate that unfortunately "contaminated" the plastik bag with biodegradeble stuff which just made the whole thing miscellaneous. Also maybe check out what a "Recyclinghof" is because if you have a lot of things to throw away at once, for example if you are moving, you can make an appointment and either bring it to them by car or they pick it up at a certain time from the sidewalk.
If you have a baby and many diapers end up in the black bin, then you often have to ask the city office to get a larger black bin. In some cities, yellow rubbish bins are set up instead of yellow bags. It always depends on how the city negotiates with the garbage disposal. Electrical devices, bulky waste or chemicals are collected separately, but you have to ask the city office. Dumping rubbish in nature is punished very dearly.
I'm not saying there isn't one, but I've never seen a native Deutsch home with a "garbage disposal". In the video you had the metal top on at least one of the jars that went into to "White" glass container; the yellow bag is not just plastic, but many other things consult that 33 page book - it has been several years since I have read the thing. Clothes and cloth are recycled in the local community, just did that one yesterday. All my Deutsch recycling experiences are from your greater Kaiserslautern area. California, of course, is the closest to the Deutsch system for recycling. The things I can think of that DE does that CA does not is plastic film and Styrofoam. Deutschland makes is so much easier and more complicated - it's a Deutsch thing, being complicated. If I was in doubt about an item I added it to the yellow bag.
Trash separation has been a long standing policy in Germany. Way back when, we even had to separate our glass by color, but you typically had your Getraenke guy pick up your empty Bier and Wein bottles (yes, everything can be delivered in Germany - I had a standing weekly order with my "Drink Haus" for my Mineralwasser, Bier, and Cola). Of course, if you had a favorite Weinguet, you brought your Wein bottles back to them. I cannot think of the correct German name of the wine shop in Ramstein, but ask any American G.I. if "The Wine Lady" is still in business (if so, probably run by her gorgeous blonde daughter who is pushing 60 by now). Sperrmuhl is an experience for American G.I.s. Basically, the night before pickup, Germans put out a lot of their large trash items such as furniture, and G.I.s (and some German scroungers) drive around and pick through it. I would hope that stores still have their un-packaging areas beyond the cash registers as you exit the store. The Massa Markt (on the way to Kasierslautern) had numerous bins where you could unpack your purchases and leave the trash at the store. If you like to do your own car work, you quickly learn that recycling is as much an issue for German shops as it is for German citizens. The auto parts store I used there would take 5 litres waste oil and one oil filter if I had my receipt showing I had purchased those items from him. Otherwise he would not.
Fun fact: In meiner Region sind leere/ungenutzte Pizzakartons ganz normaler Papiermüll, ein gebrauchter Pizzakarton - genau, da war eine Pizza drin - ist Restmüll. Manchmal verzweifelt man auch als Deutscher. ^^ Fun fact: In my region I live in, an unsused pizza carton is just normal paper waste, a used one - yes, it actually had a pizza inside - is considered miscellaneous waste. Even as a German you sometimes have a really hard time our waste disposal system. ^^
the yellow bag is not only for plastics but also for alluminium that's way drink cartons go in there. It also for all other recyclables so if it's not paper and it has the triangle on it it's for the yellow bag. Some plastics are not recyclable and won't have the triangle.
Meine kleine bayerische Gemeinde verschenkt jedes Jahr im Dezember einen Müllkalender im Format DIN A4, und ich kenne niemanden, bei dem der nicht irgendwo an der Wand hängt. Zusätzlich zu den Müllabfuhrterminen (braun = bio, blau = Papier, grau = Restmüll) sind noch die Schulferien (orange) und die Feiertage (rot) eingetragen. Als ländliche Gemeinde haben wir sehr viel Zuwanderung aus anderen Bundesländern, und gerade für unsere neuen Mitbürger ist so etwas sehr nützlich. Man bekommt den Müllkalender jederzeit im Rathaus, oder lädt sich das pdf herunter und druckt ihn selber aus. Eine App haben wir noch nicht, aber es wird daran gearbeitet. Btw, overflowing trash cans: No, you're not actually fined. Fact is, you pay for a certain amount of trash to be taken away, and if it's more, there will be a surplus charge. In my community, you can buy extra trash bags if, for one reason or another, your regular trash bin doesn't suffice. I once needed several of them when I renovated my home and found out how much trash, literally, got assembled within two decades. And at 2.60 euros for a 60 liter bag, they're quite affordable, so there's really no need for overflowing bins.
Wir haben diese Papiere auch im Flur unseres Wohnhauses hängen, aber die App macht es uns definitiv leichter! 😊 Thanks for that explanation. We have really seen or heard anybody ACTUALLY getting fined, just rumors of it happening. We have, however, seen trashcans left without getting picked up because it was overflowing or there was stuff inside that wasn't supposed to be there. For us, that is punishment enough since it will be another two weeks before they will come get that specific type of trash! haha
It's not a yellow sack in every city - it varies a little bit. I used to live in a city with a yellow trash bin. Then I moved to a small town - no yellow trash bin, even no yellow sacks. You had to bring everything to the local recycling yard and there were different container for Tetra-Pack, smaller plastic packaging, bigger plastic packaging and so on. So I had more than five sacks at home to just to separate the plastic garbage. And there was a special container for used cans and one for aluminium trash.
@@PassportTwo It was a very small town (almost a village) in the Bavarian Forrest. Hopefully I next year will live in a city with a yellow trash bin again.
In Czech Republic even small village has dust bins for plastics mostly. But legend is saying they will mix it together with normal waste and just burn that :-D
I've lived in many different states in Germany (Im German) and in my experience the yellow bin is much more common than the yellow sack. I've never heard of it though that yellow trash is separated any further (except batteries and electronics stuff) than simply "anything plastic or metal goes in there". - What you didn't mention but could be interesting is Sperrmüll, because in some regions they still have this old system of putting it on the sidewalk on designated dates and people go around and take stuff like on a free fleemarket
Used papertowels belong into Miscellaneous. As well as all paper that is coated, like the receipts you get in a supermarket. By the way depending on the municipality you live in there will be yellow bins for your plastic trash.
@@PassportTwo yeah sometimes it can get complicated.. take your supermarket receipts for example. they can not simply be recycled with normal paper, because most of them are printed on thermal paper which includes a chemical called "bisphenol A" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_paper but yet there are also some (mostly smaller) stores which use normal paper. paper towels and tissues also aren't thrown into the paper bin, because they often might be contaminated with germs (tissues) or grease/fat (paper towels). the same goes for pizza boxes used by delivery services. theoretically they are paper, but most of the time they have grease stains and some cheese residue somewhere and hence get thrown in the miscellaneous trash as well... p.s. when it comes to plastic trash like yoghurt pots they only need to be "löffelrein" (literally "spoon clean"). which means it is enough if you scrape them clean while eating your yoghurt. and don't worry: even while growing up with our recycling system many germans are not perfect at recycling as well and make mistakes. most trash still goes through waste separation facilities and is separated there. just give it your best and everything is fine ;) p.p.s: i just saw you throwing away your glass in the video. theoretically the lids also belong in your yellow trash bag even tho modern facilities are able to sort them out
You know...I am kind of wondering if they deliberately use those trash bags for the yellow trash in your area because of all the Americans living in it, so that they can check and refuse. Because in my area, there are yellow bins for this kind of stuff. Sure, if they notice that you put stuff which didn't belong there in it, they might refuse, but realistically they won't be able to see it. So if they are using see through trash bags in your area it kind of indicates that they have a reason to use something they can check easier…. In general, you COULD just be lazy and throw everything (other than Sondermüll, naturally) into the black bin. But if you do that, it would most likely overflow long before they collect your trash. But if, for example, you accidentally break a glas, nobody would expect you to collect the shards and carry them to the next glas container, throwing them into the regular trash in cases like this is totally fine.
It is very easy. It is just to get used to. We don't know something else anymore! It is normal like taking a shower. It is maybe 1 month, and you are used to it!
Sehr interessantes Video. Wenn ihr aber mal ein wirklich spezielles/kompliziertes System kennen lernen möchtet müsstet ihr euch über die Mülltrennung im Landkreis Fürstenfeldbruck informieren. Hier gibt es (leider) keinen gelben Sack. Hier muss man den Recyclingmüll zum Wertstoffhof bringen und in verschiedene Kategorien sortieren. (Papier/Karton, Weißblech, Glas und verschiedene Farben, Alu und ca 7 verschiedene Kategorien Plastik). Wenn euch das interessiert kann ich gerne mal schauen ob ich eine Infobroschüre finde. Aber eigentlich muss man das mal erlebt haben 😂 Im Moment muss man (wegen Social distance) ca 40 Minuten im Stau vor dem Wertstoffhof warten um dort dann seinen Müll entsorgen zu können 😕😷
here in Czech Republic in my village I know walk from supermarket to dust bin for metal takes exactly same time as drink one red bull which is cool feature and life hack :-D
You order special pick ups for debris or broken furniture. If your renovation is project of several days with debris for several days you get a permit for a container on the street. Old broken furniture you leave at the curb to be picked up at the agreed day. Electronics you either bring back to the store or to a recycling center (Wertstoffhof). Old furniture that is still good, you can have pick up by thrift store owners of used items. Every small city has such a thrift store somewhere. You can bring dangerous chemicals to the Apotheke. Old batteries drop in the battery bin at the superstore.
Our trash gets picked up every 2 weeks. And we only have 2 trashcans for the entire building (but there are only 4 apartments, one of them is empty). One is for miscellaneous trash, the other for paper. Up until a few years ago we didn't even have the paper bin. There's a "Wertstoffinsel" just down the street where we throw away all our plastic and glass as well as excess paper trash that didn't fit in the bin. You can get a fine for overflowing trash cans? Oopsie, guess we've violated the rules a few times :D
It does seem that people have commented more than we expected things like "in my city we have a yellow bin and not a yellow bag." Variations of the same rules seem common but overall, the separation seems the same? 🤷♂️
@@PassportTwo There are some citys, where you just have to seperate glass and paper, to bring them to publik collecting containers. But the rest is all thrown away together. It is seperated by professionals after it has arrived at the recycling centre. Btw: I heard a radio documentary some months ago, that some US citiies do seperate their trashto. and both ways exist: 1. systems, where the people seperatethemselves or 2. systems, where it is all sorted after collection in the cecycling centre. :)
The strange thing - in my view - is, that the US are very often really careless and backards as a nation. But on the other had, you can also find the most innovative and progressive developments somewhere in the country, too. Be it in respect of environmentalism, be it in respect of education or philosophy: Most people seem uneducated and (sorry) dumb on the one hand, compared to other OECD countries. But if you look for the avantgarde in each field and the most impressing examples, to do anything, you find them in the US, too. So it's a kind of peculiar for me, to often look down on the US in a disgusted way, only to look up to those in the US who are the very best in the same field - while their countriewomen and -men don't realise it.
Ich habe 3 Mülleimer vor meiner Tür. 1 Normaler Müll, 2 Plastik/Verpackungen und 3 Papier. Den Bio Müll entsorge ich im Garten. Kompost für neue Erde. Die Glaskontainer stehen ca. 200 meter weit, das Glas wird gesammelt und dort Entsorgt (Braun, Grün, Weis). Läuft bei mir XD Ps.: hatte es zuerst in English geschrieben, da wurde mir wohl ein Wort zum Verhängniss (S...t). "hit", bedeutet Getroffen. Kann aber auch Müll bedeuten XD. Nur für YT und dem Google Algorithmus nicht.
In der Schweiz kann man Plastikflaschen zurück in den Laden bringen (genauso wie alte CDs, Gaspatronen für Rahmbläser und Batterien). Papier und Karton wird separat gebündelt und einmal pro Monat abgeholt. Es gibt auch eine Altkleidersammlung, für Kleidungsstücke, welche noch tragbar sind. Kompost ist separat und wird wöchentlich abgeholt. Auf Petflaschen gibt es keinen Pfand. Elektroschrott kann im Laden gratis zurückgegeben werden, denn die Gebühr fürs Entsorgen ist bereits im Verkaufspreis integriert.
@@PassportTwo haha to be honest i dident expect you to respond. Iam acctually not from germany but from sweden, we have, atleast from what i heard from you, pretty much the same sorting system. Envelops are to be thrown in the general waste.
haha, I try to respond to as many, if not all comments! Well, envelopes are one things that have baffled us and have received multiple different instructions on what to do with them. If the Swedes do general waste, then maybe we should too 😉
Ach..sooo kompliziert ist es doch nicht? Die Restmüll Tonne wird normalerweise in einer Minimalgrösse geliefert, die sich nach den Personen im Haushalt richtet. Bei 2 Personen müssten das 60 Liter pro Woche sein. Reicht euch das nicht, ruft ihr bei der Müllabfuhr an und lasst euch eine grössere Tonne schicken. Das müsst ihr dann aber immer bezahlen. Habt ihr nur einmalig mehr Müll, könnt ihr bei der Stadtverwaltung oder Müllabfuhr Säcke kaufen, die dann abgeholt werden. Alternativ ladet ihr den Müll ins Auto und fahrt ihn auf die Mülldeponie. Die nehmen von Privatpersonen eigentlich alles kostenlos an. Für Kaiserslautern Stadt ist es die Deponie Kapiteltal. Weiss nicht, ob die auch eure Sachen nehmen. Wenn nicht, steht in eurem Müllbuch sicher die zuständige Deponie.
@@PassportTwo BTW: don't know how much you understand, but famous german comedian Otto once explained how to recycle a teabag properly: ruclips.net/video/jBPIPzGBxYE/видео.html
And that is one of the main reasons why we behave ; sometimes; like condecending a**holes in other countries. We had to learn all this recycling rules and we follow them like a moral code. If you do not do it ... you are a bad person. After the WW2 we all knew, that ;as a nation; we did something atroucious. Patriotism is now strongly associated with nationalism, so expressions of patrotic pride are always a little bit cringy for us. So we redirict that in other areas like local pride in the village, city , state, sporting clubs "soccer" and other things that aren't tarnished by the Nazis... like enviromental protection. Our enviromental efforts are a source of pride in this nation and we need new stuff to be proud of ... sadly the old stuff is slowly crawling back in. To end on a more positiv note we love to recycle now but we will also complain about while secretly feeling totally smug about. It is the german way , weird , an aquiered tast but still always trying to do it better than before and find better solutions.
Random, but I have visited a trash dump in Germany once and they showed us how it isn't all lumped together in the end and how proud they were that the non-recyclable trash was so small...but I have to admit...I did wonder if this was just for show. haha, we have heard the same rumors and have wondered about it, but even if it does. Still don't want to get in trouble so I guess we'll keep "playing the game!" haha
There have been some documentaries about this in North America on how our recycled materials end up in landfills. I keep recycling. I figure Europe is better about it since they are so strict about it.
we have exactly same rumor here in Czech Republic, we have plastic, glass and paper dust bins everywhere but many people really believe they will mix it together :-D
What do you think about the trash system in Germany?? Complicated? Brilliant?? Let us know! 😊
To a Finn the German system sounds like a bizarre mixture of our system and the American one. Here you don't have to roll your trashcans anywhere. They're usually located (sometimes in a shed or hidden behind a small wall) near the street so the garbage trucks can easily empty them when they arrive.
We do have basically the same amount of sorting though. The amount of trash cans usually depends on the type of building. Homeowners have to pay for different types of cans, so they usually tend to have just one or two and take the rest to a public sorting station. But large apartment buildings can have separate cans for plastic, paper, cardboard, glass, metal and miscellaneous. (The latter will end up in a waste-to-energy facility, so in one way or another, everything gets recycled.)
Ps. You can usually get biowaste containers with active charcoal filters, that will eliminate the smell.)
We saw that Finland is consistently one of the most green countries in the world so this is a very interesting perspective! I really like the idea of the trashcans already being located in a specific location where the garbage trucks can easily pick them up without you having to roll them around everywhere.
Really appreciate the tip about the active charcoal filters. We of course have nothing like this we have seen or have had to use in the US so our bio trash really can stink...haha, we will most definitely have to look into those. Thanks!
@@PassportTwo the thing is that not everyone here in germany has a little garden or driveway in front of his house where he would be able to store 3 different trashcans close to the road. When you live in a newer house that was build in the 70s, 80s or 90s you might have the luxury to have a small garden in front of it, a garage or a carport, but most of the little villages-especially the centers are hundreds of years old and have small and narrow streets (sometimes even with cobblestones) with tiny houses that were build very close to the street and there is hardly enough space for a decent sidewalk. It´s nearly impossible to build little walls or sheds for 3 or more trashcans in front of these houses and thats why many people keep them in their backyards or garages.
It stinks! Literally!
@Dax arms Hopefully you are simply trying to be sarcastically funny. If not, just remember that a burn pit creates toxic fumes if you burn plastics, batteries, printed papers with large scale photos, etc. It contaminates the soil in the burn pit. Glass cracks and splinters in fires. Metalic rest waste coalesces into fused lumps difficult to separate from the soil, which might poison it with toxic levels of heavy metals. Laminated milk or other liquid storage cartons often have metalic foils in them, again covered in plastics. Wires are coated plastics. Also, a burn pit needs fuel because many of the trash wastes do not burn sufficiently on their own. So you are also wasting additional fuel.
As such, it sounds like you, dear dax arms, need a good brain.
A really important point - please recycle used batteries (or bring them to collection stations in nearly all super markets) and old electronic equipment (kaputt Handys [smartphones] 😂 or radios or such).
Batteries often contain nasty stuff and batteries and electronics are full of resources like rare earths and gold..
As landfills are not allowed in the EU these things will get incinerated if you put them in your normal household waste container and will be lost forever.
You are a nice couple - stay the way you are 👍
To increase your trash experience you should visit a Wertstoffhof. :-)
You don´t need to cleanup the Plastic-Waste ... cause the Water is a valuable Ressource. And on the Yellow Bag there is mostly a List of Items you could trow inside.
Ya, we've been told by some that we do need to rinse and some say it is a waste of time and water. For now we have decided to do it just so the stuff doesn't start to stink in the bag over time. Thanks for the info! 😊
@@PassportTwo It´s nice that you try to make the life of the collectors a little bit better, but it is really not necessary. Stop using the water. Greetings from a garbage collector :)
Don't wash the items before trowing them away! Safe water! Always! !!! Water is so important. Trow the trash away and bring it outside! Trash in the house brings insekts and Rats inside. Buy as less trash as possible!
@@PassportTwo to clean the Plastic-Waste (z.b. Joghurt-Becher) is good for the Plantworkers. I was there once and its stinking not so much when you clean your waste. its only about to safe the workers.
It differs from city to city. In some communities - as in mine - you have to clean the garbage before throwing away. 👆
Nice video. I'm American and I've lived in Germany for 8 years. I will agree, at first, it seemed quite daunting because it is a complex system. It is surprising how many Germans don't understand it. But there is a simple way to explain it and that really only comes through experience. 1. All plastic, metal and tetra pack goes into the Gelber Sack, 2. All clean paper - and only paper goes into the blue container, 3. Anything organic goes into the Biotonne. You can wrap rotten meat in a paper towel and put it into the Biotonne. Finally, anything not covered up to this point goes into the Grauetonne (no glass). Did anybody need a 33 page manual for that?
In some areas, meat and boiled vegetables go into the black container, not the brown (which is green in my city). And papertowels are not paper but cellulose, so they are not for the blue bin. Yes.. Glass goes to the glasscontainers, BUT only glassbottles and jars. Other glasses like windows or vases not. Here we also have an orange bin for electronics (still at experimental stage). Oh.. instead of these yellow sacs we have yellow bins.
Sometimes i have the feeling, I have to study a semester or two, to get it really...
(Assuming it works roughly the same in Germany as in the Netherlands!)
Large quantities can be disposed off at your local "recyclinghof" or "wertstoffhof"
(In Dutch we call it a "milieu park")
You have to bring it yourself. You dump it in a large container specifically meant for certain waste. We have like 4 different types of wooden waste alone I believe.
In the NL we can bring a certain amount of weight per year for free (like 200kg).
However, for some types you always have to pay.
We have cut down 4 trees from our backyard. Disposing of it by using the trashcontainers is just impossible. In such occasions you bring it in yourself
Wow! Very interesting. We will have to make sure to look into that here if we have to throw anything like that away.
yes, typically every bigger village has a "Wertstoffhof" or "Recyclinghof" where you can bring your stuff. Depending on the size of the village, they do have specific opening times, which you do have to keep in mind though. In my village for example it is only open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8 to 12 in the morning. But you do have people working there, during that time, that can help you sort things out. Usually you also have a regional one, that is open more frequently, but it only makes sense to go there, if you have a LOT of stuff.
If you know you have a big renovation or something like that in the future, you can also call up the local recycling company and you can rent an open container, where you can just throw your stuff in and (depending of the stuff) you either pay for the weight or the volume, once the container is taken away. You do need to have the space for a container obviously...
"Bulky waste" is picked up in some regions by prior registration (about 6 weeks waiting period) others still have regular collection days. Attention, for things that are still working or are still to use, there is also the option to give them away at the social department store or they are picked up (often led by the AWO or the DRK).
"What happens if you don't do it correctly?"
Depends on where you live. If you throw everything in one bin and you have to share it with your neighbours, they soon will start to complain. If you have your own bin and you don't do it correctly it could happen that the garbage men take notice and complain.
From my own experience I can tell you, don't make your garbage men mad at you! My parents ignored their advice and learned it the hard way by finding the content of their garbage bin all over their entrance.
They complain since the Misc trash disposal you pay with hard earned money, a lot. That is why they start to complain. And every overfilled trash bin costs a fine. So most of us follow the rules just because there are more nice ways to "waste" money.
When you start to recycle for real it doesnt take long to see hos much packaging we use. In our home here in Sweden we recycle biocompost ( becomes fuel), paper, plastic, carton, glass, metal, batteries, light sources, electric stuff and misc (that will be burnt). We also turn in left over meds to the farmacis and fabric that is to bad to give away back to the stores to be made into new fabric. And the the ”pant” system that give you money for the PET bottles and soda cans.
Seems the same as in Germany. Btw. your name is so swedish, it possibly can't be more swedish than that, which is meant nicely to prevent misconceptions I might add. :-)
Tip: use very small bio degradable bags for BIO. That way it won't start to smell as bad as if it was a big one, because you have to bring it out to the big trash can more often.
Into the yellow bags, at least where I live, you also throw metals in. Cans, lids from glass jars, joghurts or bottles e.g. and aluminum foil also belongs in there.
I don't know about the U.S., but I think in our envelopes with a window it's not plastic in a lot of cases. It's see threw paper like parchment. Just check it with the feel between your fingertips or take a lighter/match. Plastic would melt, while paper would obviously burn.
This is how I deal with food waste at home (South Korea):
1. Keep it in a plastic bag or container, in the freezer.
2. Take it out when it's time to waste outside.
I promise you, it's fantastic. Also, you can keep track of how much food waste you produce in a certain amount of time.
@John MacCormack - I live in Canada and during the warmer months, I also freeze my organic waste until the evening before or the morning of pick up day. Otherwise maggots develop in the outside bin and that's disgusting. South Korea recycles 95% of its food waste so that's probably what snappin meant.
Well done my friends, I love the presentation. They added a few more pages since I had that book in Schweinfurt. I remember saying to myself, wow this book has 21 1/2 pages lol. Recycling had stayed with me even though I am living in the states. We don't recycle near as much but we do separate the plastics, glasses, etc. :).
haha, ya! The book is a little longer and I wonder actually what those new pages may be 🤔
@@PassportTwo Lol lol, Exactly :).
Love the into! What a great video cut based on the beat of the music!
Hey! Thanks so much! Glad you were able to enjoy it 😊
5:00 - You don't have to seperate metal and plastic anymore. The Grüner Sack (green sack) was the brother of the yellow one and supposed for metal but now it's done magnetically and both gets into the yellow one. Also, you don't have to rinse plastic. At least in Bavaria^^
We have both a stationary and a mobile "Wertstoffhof".
Once a month they come to a place in the city and you can bring your "Elektroschrott"
(e.g. washing machine, TV) and "Problemabfall" (e.g. flourescent lamps, chemicals).
"Sperrmüll" (= bulky, movable furnishings) is for free up to a size of one cubic meter.
If you have more/it exceeds the limit it will cost you 10€/cubic meter.
Can't you bring these electric devices back to the store? In Switzerland the the price for the disposal of these products is already included when you buy it.
@@Leenapanther I don't know if you can bring them back, but IIRC e.g. the stores offer to take and dispose the old devices when they deliver the new purchased ones.
The thing about fines for too much miscellaneous trash keeping the lid open...
The yearly fee you pay for trash depends on the size of the bin you have. If you need more volume you can ask for bigger/more bins. As I don’t have as much miscellaneous trash, I had a spacer put in to reduce the bins volume and pay less fees (with apartments you don’t really get that choice and the fee is shared by all tenants through the rent). Hence, if you regularly overflow the trash, they will ask higher fees.
This doesn’t apply to the paper bins, as that is actually a resource to them.
The yellow bags (some regions do have bins or containers for those as well) is a tad more complicated. It is part of the dual system (the yin yang style arrow on lots of packaging, called “Grüner Punkt“ - green dot). It’s a law from the 90’s, in which the manufacturers are required to pay for the recycling or disposal of their products. That’s why you get those yellow bags for free at your townhall or such. The trash has already been paid for.
Nice! Thanks so much for all this information! We were actually wondering if we would have to pay for more yellow bags...nice to know we don’t have to 😊
Slovenia is number 5 most eco friendly...That's cool. I didn't know that and I'm from Slovenia:)
hi you two :)
just a tipp: the ONLY trash you legally have to separate is the so called " Sondermüll ". Enviromental hazardous stuff like batteries, motor oil, some kinds of paint, old meds etc. .
Everything else CAN go into the grey bin! Everything recyclable CAN go into the yellow bag (even old cola bottles) or glass.. bio into bio or grey.... etc.
The best reason to separate trash is just to safe money cause everything that can disposed elsewhere does not fill your grey bin. The smaller your bin- the less you pay!
If your town charges you for the bio box show them your middle finger and decompose it by yourself or ask the next best farmer near your neighborhood for the way to the local BGA.
If they charge you for paper or anything else show them the middle finger and just use the public Trashcan in the town next to you!
They have the same shape/size like glass containers just with a blue emblem, usually they stand right next to the glass containers.
There is even more that can be separated , old clothing for example. Boxes for old Shoes and Clothing can be found near your next Red Cross Station or Fire department.
This way you also fund the red cross organisation because old clothing can be reused by refugee camps or scrapped down and sold as recycling material. either way you do something good.
For big stuff like old furniture or large electro items like washer, dryer, fridges, ovens, car tyres etc you can report " Sperrmüll " to your disposal service.
They will set up an appointment to pick the stuff up and charge you for that but 500kg are usually free.
Hint: Don't make that public cause your neighbours will put their stuff right beside it and you get charged for their trash! Seriously if you set up a Sperrmüll appointment GUARD YOUR TRASH!
By the way it may help to look for the " Grüner Punkt " on stuff you buy at your local supermarket. Its a green dot formed by a bright and dark green arrow.
It's one of the indicators for stuff to go into the yellow bag. (old joke from the 90's : what has a Chinese and the green dot in common ? a yellow bag! )
If you happen to run out of yellow bags or loose your ticket to get more at your " Bürgeramt " you just have to request them at the Disposal Service and you get them for free.
anyways... if you have to pay for more then the grey bin, don't make up with that Sh....!
Bei uns werden Medikamente nicht beim Sondermüll angenommen, es heißt das soll in den Restmüll.
Und ich habe gehört manche Apotheker sagen sogar man soll das Zeug einfach ins Klo schütten bevor man die Fläschchen oder Packungen wegwirft.
Ich finde beides extrem unverantwortlich.
Übrigens, wohnst du im selben Ort wie die beiden? Ansonsten haben Mülltipps in Deutschland ja gar nicht viel Sinn, da es in jeder Gemeinde (oder in jedem Landkreis) große Unterschiede geben kann.
Die Sache mit alten Kleidern und Textilien ist auch sehr uneinheitlich, ich habe kürzlich erst deswegen nachgeforscht und nach zwei Stunden stöbern in Foren und bei Ratgebern wußte ich weniger als zuvor.
Meistens sind ja wirklich nur neuwertige Sachen erwünscht und obwohl manche Leute behaupten man könnte auch unbrauchbare Textilien zum recyclen reintun ist es wohl eher so dass der Aufwand des sortierens und verarbeitens den Nutzen bei weitem übersteigt also bleibt meist nur die normale Mülltonne, da sind meine beiden Schlafsäcke dann leider auch gelandet.
Not all citys use the bags for the plastic trash. A lot citys changed to Bins like for the other Trash
I think it may be complicated in the beginning, but once you know how to sort your trash correctly, you do it automatically.
Willkommen in der Pfalz. Ich lebe ganz in der Nähe von euch. Gerne würde ich euch die wirklich interessanten Attraktionen mal zeigen...
Thank you so much! We have really enjoyed being here so far and look forward to exploring more.
Also, I do apologize. Ich lerne in Kaiserslautern Deutsch, aber es ist noch nicht sehr gut. Hoffentlich kann ich bald auf Deutsch antworten.
ruclips.net/video/C-ETp-VAvhY/видео.html
So each trash-bin has it's history. The plastic bin in fact was the effect of a law which was designed to reduce waste. The law originally said that you are allowed to give back the packaging to the store where you baught it. So the stores decided to organize a collection system for the packaging. Everybody who sells packaging contributs to it. The "grüner Punkt" sign on a packaging tells you that the fee for the packaging collection was paid.
For the miscellanius bin, it's you who pay the collection. So it is in your own interest to minimize the amount of trash in the miscellanious bin. The system varies from city to city. In some cities, the grey trash bin is weighted and you pay per weight. In our town, we pay per collection. So we have the opportunity to empty it every two weeks, but we save money if we put it only every four weeks (it is about 10 Euros per collection)
I saw a huge mistake! 😅😅😅 you should take out the metal caps from those glasses and then throw them in containers, its dangerous for the people working in recycling to get the caps out of broken glasses. Thats why you see many caps on those glass containers 🌺🌺🌺
Please believe me - nobody in glass recycling companies here touches glass 😉
I have visited such a plant some time ago and even then - all the glass container content is broken first, then all caps are filtered out by huge magnets and corks of wine bottles are separated by a water bath. Metal caps are sold on to steel mills or aluminium smelters.
uwe in Hamburg oh ok! I have to check again with my landlord then 😄😄
Thanks for sharing your experience, I love what you are saying! And thanks for separating your trash here. Only the background music in the video is so annoying? Granted, I think that music is always annoying in videos that are not music videos but the music here seems to be louder/less in the background compared to the speech loudness and also musically more annoying than in other videos. But maybe I am alone here, so maybe others can share their impressions as well.
Thanks for the feedback, we will consider this on our next video and see what we can possibly change to improve! Still appreciate you watching though 😊
About the fines and what not.
Plastic, paper, glass and biodegradeble waste is most of the time really easy to tell what goes where. And a general rule of thumb should be if you are uncertain it is miscellaneous. I had a flat mate that unfortunately "contaminated" the plastik bag with biodegradeble stuff which just made the whole thing miscellaneous.
Also maybe check out what a "Recyclinghof" is because if you have a lot of things to throw away at once, for example if you are moving, you can make an appointment and either bring it to them by car or they pick it up at a certain time from the sidewalk.
If you have a baby and many diapers end up in the black bin, then you often have to ask the city office to get a larger black bin.
In some cities, yellow rubbish bins are set up instead of yellow bags. It always depends on how the city negotiates with the garbage disposal.
Electrical devices, bulky waste or chemicals are collected separately, but you have to ask the city office.
Dumping rubbish in nature is punished very dearly.
I'm not saying there isn't one, but I've never seen a native Deutsch home with a "garbage disposal". In the video you had the metal top on at least one of the jars that went into to "White" glass container; the yellow bag is not just plastic, but many other things consult that 33 page book - it has been several years since I have read the thing. Clothes and cloth are recycled in the local community, just did that one yesterday. All my Deutsch recycling experiences are from your greater Kaiserslautern area. California, of course, is the closest to the Deutsch system for recycling. The things I can think of that DE does that CA does not is plastic film and Styrofoam. Deutschland makes is so much easier and more complicated - it's a Deutsch thing, being complicated. If I was in doubt about an item I added it to the yellow bag.
Used paper towels go in „Restmüll“ ;)
Perfect, thanks! 😊
Trash separation has been a long standing policy in Germany. Way back when, we even had to separate our glass by color, but you typically had your Getraenke guy pick up your empty Bier and Wein bottles (yes, everything can be delivered in Germany - I had a standing weekly order with my "Drink Haus" for my Mineralwasser, Bier, and Cola). Of course, if you had a favorite Weinguet, you brought your Wein bottles back to them. I cannot think of the correct German name of the wine shop in Ramstein, but ask any American G.I. if "The Wine Lady" is still in business (if so, probably run by her gorgeous blonde daughter who is pushing 60 by now).
Sperrmuhl is an experience for American G.I.s. Basically, the night before pickup, Germans put out a lot of their large trash items such as furniture, and G.I.s (and some German scroungers) drive around and pick through it.
I would hope that stores still have their un-packaging areas beyond the cash registers as you exit the store. The Massa Markt (on the way to Kasierslautern) had numerous bins where you could unpack your purchases and leave the trash at the store.
If you like to do your own car work, you quickly learn that recycling is as much an issue for German shops as it is for German citizens. The auto parts store I used there would take 5 litres waste oil and one oil filter if I had my receipt showing I had purchased those items from him. Otherwise he would not.
In a lot of german cities there is a trashcan for the plastic outside, It's black with a yellow lid
I think we have noticed that in a few places...thanks for the extra info 😊
Fun fact: In meiner Region sind leere/ungenutzte Pizzakartons ganz normaler Papiermüll, ein gebrauchter Pizzakarton - genau, da war eine Pizza drin - ist Restmüll. Manchmal verzweifelt man auch als Deutscher. ^^
Fun fact: In my region I live in, an unsused pizza carton is just normal paper waste, a used one - yes, it actually had a pizza inside - is considered miscellaneous waste. Even as a German you sometimes have a really hard time our waste disposal system. ^^
haha, das ist sehr lustig! 😂
the yellow bag is not only for plastics but also for alluminium that's way drink cartons go in there. It also for all other recyclables so if it's not paper and it has the triangle on it it's for the yellow bag. Some plastics are not recyclable and won't have the triangle.
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!!
@@PassportTwo Wait, this is a video from 5 months ago I didn't expect an answer. Thx guys, hope you're doing well in these corona times.
😊 Hope you are doing well also! Bleibt gesund!
@@PassportTwo Since you're addressing only me it's"Bleib gesund". It's imperativ and there are only 2 forms for each verb, plural and singular.
I think you forgot the Recyclinghöfe which are used for special things like metal interior and so on
We didn’t forget, we didn’t know about it 😉 Thanks for the addition!
Meine kleine bayerische Gemeinde verschenkt jedes Jahr im Dezember einen Müllkalender im Format DIN A4, und ich kenne niemanden, bei dem der nicht irgendwo an der Wand hängt. Zusätzlich zu den Müllabfuhrterminen (braun = bio, blau = Papier, grau = Restmüll) sind noch die Schulferien (orange) und die Feiertage (rot) eingetragen. Als ländliche Gemeinde haben wir sehr viel Zuwanderung aus anderen Bundesländern, und gerade für unsere neuen Mitbürger ist so etwas sehr nützlich. Man bekommt den Müllkalender jederzeit im Rathaus, oder lädt sich das pdf herunter und druckt ihn selber aus. Eine App haben wir noch nicht, aber es wird daran gearbeitet.
Btw, overflowing trash cans: No, you're not actually fined. Fact is, you pay for a certain amount of trash to be taken away, and if it's more, there will be a surplus charge. In my community, you can buy extra trash bags if, for one reason or another, your regular trash bin doesn't suffice. I once needed several of them when I renovated my home and found out how much trash, literally, got assembled within two decades. And at 2.60 euros for a 60 liter bag, they're quite affordable, so there's really no need for overflowing bins.
Wir haben diese Papiere auch im Flur unseres Wohnhauses hängen, aber die App macht es uns definitiv leichter! 😊
Thanks for that explanation. We have really seen or heard anybody ACTUALLY getting fined, just rumors of it happening. We have, however, seen trashcans left without getting picked up because it was overflowing or there was stuff inside that wasn't supposed to be there. For us, that is punishment enough since it will be another two weeks before they will come get that specific type of trash! haha
It's not a yellow sack in every city - it varies a little bit. I used to live in a city with a yellow trash bin.
Then I moved to a small town - no yellow trash bin, even no yellow sacks. You had to bring everything to the local recycling yard and there were different container for Tetra-Pack, smaller plastic packaging, bigger plastic packaging and so on. So I had more than five sacks at home to just to separate the plastic garbage. And there was a special container for used cans and one for aluminium trash.
wow! 😮 We thought it could get more complicated in other regions but not THAT much more! That's amazing...
@@PassportTwo It was a very small town (almost a village) in the Bavarian Forrest. Hopefully I next year will live in a city with a yellow trash bin again.
In Czech Republic even small village has dust bins for plastics mostly. But legend is saying they will mix it together with normal waste and just burn that :-D
I've lived in many different states in Germany (Im German) and in my experience the yellow bin is much more common than the yellow sack. I've never heard of it though that yellow trash is separated any further (except batteries and electronics stuff) than simply "anything plastic or metal goes in there". - What you didn't mention but could be interesting is Sperrmüll, because in some regions they still have this old system of putting it on the sidewalk on designated dates and people go around and take stuff like on a free fleemarket
Used papertowels belong into Miscellaneous. As well as all paper that is coated, like the receipts you get in a supermarket.
By the way depending on the municipality you live in there will be yellow bins for your plastic trash.
Great tips! Honestly had no clue about the receipts...I assumed that went in the paper bin. We will now change where we throw those! Thanks!
@@PassportTwo yeah sometimes it can get complicated.. take your supermarket receipts for example. they can not simply be recycled with normal paper, because most of them are printed on thermal paper which includes a chemical called "bisphenol A" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_paper
but yet there are also some (mostly smaller) stores which use normal paper. paper towels and tissues also aren't thrown into the paper bin, because they often might be contaminated with germs (tissues) or grease/fat (paper towels). the same goes for pizza boxes used by delivery services. theoretically they are paper, but most of the time they have grease stains and some cheese residue somewhere and hence get thrown in the miscellaneous trash as well...
p.s. when it comes to plastic trash like yoghurt pots they only need to be "löffelrein" (literally "spoon clean"). which means it is enough if you scrape them clean while eating your yoghurt. and don't worry: even while growing up with our recycling system many germans are not perfect at recycling as well and make mistakes. most trash still goes through waste separation facilities and is separated there. just give it your best and everything is fine ;)
p.p.s: i just saw you throwing away your glass in the video. theoretically the lids also belong in your yellow trash bag even tho modern facilities are able to sort them out
You know...I am kind of wondering if they deliberately use those trash bags for the yellow trash in your area because of all the Americans living in it, so that they can check and refuse. Because in my area, there are yellow bins for this kind of stuff. Sure, if they notice that you put stuff which didn't belong there in it, they might refuse, but realistically they won't be able to see it. So if they are using see through trash bags in your area it kind of indicates that they have a reason to use something they can check easier….
In general, you COULD just be lazy and throw everything (other than Sondermüll, naturally) into the black bin. But if you do that, it would most likely overflow long before they collect your trash. But if, for example, you accidentally break a glas, nobody would expect you to collect the shards and carry them to the next glas container, throwing them into the regular trash in cases like this is totally fine.
It is very easy. It is just to get used to. We don't know something else anymore! It is normal like taking a shower. It is maybe 1 month, and you are used to it!
Sehr interessantes Video. Wenn ihr aber mal ein wirklich spezielles/kompliziertes System kennen lernen möchtet müsstet ihr euch über die Mülltrennung im Landkreis Fürstenfeldbruck informieren. Hier gibt es (leider) keinen gelben Sack. Hier muss man den Recyclingmüll zum Wertstoffhof bringen und in verschiedene Kategorien sortieren. (Papier/Karton, Weißblech, Glas und verschiedene Farben, Alu und ca 7 verschiedene Kategorien Plastik). Wenn euch das interessiert kann ich gerne mal schauen ob ich eine Infobroschüre finde. Aber eigentlich muss man das mal erlebt haben 😂
Im Moment muss man (wegen Social distance) ca 40 Minuten im Stau vor dem Wertstoffhof warten um dort dann seinen Müll entsorgen zu können 😕😷
Not even germans know exactly how to proper recycle
Montserrat Müller haha, i can definitely understand why not! They are very specific about how to do so.
@@PassportTwo And it's different from community to community
here in Czech Republic in my village I know walk from supermarket to dust bin for metal takes exactly same time as drink one red bull which is cool feature and life hack :-D
You have to separate the glas and the cap.
TableCraft 24 we have learned that since! Thanks for helping also ☺️
You order special pick ups for debris or broken furniture. If your renovation is project of several days with debris for several days you get a permit for a container on the street. Old broken furniture you leave at the curb to be picked up at the agreed day. Electronics you either bring back to the store or to a recycling center (Wertstoffhof). Old furniture that is still good, you can have pick up by thrift store owners of used items. Every small city has such a thrift store somewhere.
You can bring dangerous chemicals to the Apotheke. Old batteries drop in the battery bin at the superstore.
Nice! Thanks for all the tips! Seems like you pretty much covered everything 😊
in order to save at least a penny,... Is it true that we can ask for Trashbag in Oil Station(Tankstelle) for free?
I have never heard of this but I guess that doesn't mean it isn't possible 🤷♂️
Our trash gets picked up every 2 weeks. And we only have 2 trashcans for the entire building (but there are only 4 apartments, one of them is empty). One is for miscellaneous trash, the other for paper. Up until a few years ago we didn't even have the paper bin. There's a "Wertstoffinsel" just down the street where we throw away all our plastic and glass as well as excess paper trash that didn't fit in the bin.
You can get a fine for overflowing trash cans? Oopsie, guess we've violated the rules a few times :D
2 weeks without picking up dust bins...it would be apocalypse here in Czech Republic :-D
@@Pidalin It somehow works. Our bins aren't even full most of the time.
@@leDespicable Maybe you have more dust bins for every building than other countries. Here they picking it every week.
Depends on the building. We only have two for 7 people
Very interesting
Glad you think so!
What about metal cans
Awesome video, now I know what to do with my pile of glass bottles building up haha.
haha, perfect! Glad it was helpful for you! Hopefully some of those can go to the grocery store and you can get some money back!! 😊
5:30 Do NOT wash your trash!
Depends on the municipality. Some recycling companies want you to do that, some do it themselves.
It deffers from Land (='state') to Land city to city, how trash is sperated.
It does seem that people have commented more than we expected things like "in my city we have a yellow bin and not a yellow bag." Variations of the same rules seem common but overall, the separation seems the same? 🤷♂️
@@PassportTwo There are some citys, where you just have to seperate glass and paper, to bring them to publik collecting containers. But the rest is all thrown away together. It is seperated by professionals after it has arrived at the recycling centre.
Btw: I heard a radio documentary some months ago, that some US citiies do seperate their trashto. and both ways exist: 1. systems, where the people seperatethemselves or 2. systems, where it is all sorted after collection in the cecycling centre. :)
The strange thing - in my view - is, that the US are very often really careless and backards as a nation. But on the other had, you can also find the most innovative and progressive developments somewhere in the country, too. Be it in respect of environmentalism, be it in respect of education or philosophy: Most people seem uneducated and (sorry) dumb on the one hand, compared to other OECD countries. But if you look for the avantgarde in each field and the most impressing examples, to do anything, you find them in the US, too.
So it's a kind of peculiar for me, to often look down on the US in a disgusted way, only to look up to those in the US who are the very best in the same field - while their countriewomen and -men don't realise it.
It is not complicated! Very big trash. You call a special number and they are coming. In the Netherlands it is the same!
Ich habe 3 Mülleimer vor meiner Tür. 1 Normaler Müll, 2 Plastik/Verpackungen und 3 Papier.
Den Bio Müll entsorge ich im Garten. Kompost für neue Erde.
Die Glaskontainer stehen ca. 200 meter weit, das Glas wird gesammelt und dort Entsorgt (Braun, Grün, Weis).
Läuft bei mir XD
Ps.: hatte es zuerst in English geschrieben, da wurde mir wohl ein Wort zum Verhängniss (S...t). "hit", bedeutet Getroffen. Kann aber auch Müll bedeuten XD. Nur für YT und dem Google Algorithmus nicht.
In der Schweiz kann man Plastikflaschen zurück in den Laden bringen (genauso wie alte CDs, Gaspatronen für Rahmbläser und Batterien). Papier und Karton wird separat gebündelt und einmal pro Monat abgeholt. Es gibt auch eine Altkleidersammlung, für Kleidungsstücke, welche noch tragbar sind. Kompost ist separat und wird wöchentlich abgeholt. Auf Petflaschen gibt es keinen Pfand. Elektroschrott kann im Laden gratis zurückgegeben werden, denn die Gebühr fürs Entsorgen ist bereits im Verkaufspreis integriert.
I'm a Slovakian and I know everything you guys say.. Lol.
that's probably because Slovakia is in Europe :-D
@@Pidalin yup
Most differences are due to EU regulations, not just German.
I only have three kinds of trash: Paper, plastic and others...
Nice! I guess it is just a little more complicated here then for us.
@@PassportTwo Yeah, because I don't have bio and I bring my glass to my mom, because she make a lot of homemade marmalade and need a lot of them...
you can NOT throw envelops in papper because of the glue on it
poder80 wow, that’s a rule we hadn’t heard yet! So it’s goes it the general waste basket?
@@PassportTwo haha to be honest i dident expect you to respond. Iam acctually not from germany but from sweden, we have, atleast from what i heard from you, pretty much the same sorting system. Envelops are to be thrown in the general waste.
haha, I try to respond to as many, if not all comments! Well, envelopes are one things that have baffled us and have received multiple different instructions on what to do with them. If the Swedes do general waste, then maybe we should too 😉
Ach..sooo kompliziert ist es doch nicht? Die Restmüll Tonne wird normalerweise in einer Minimalgrösse geliefert, die sich nach den Personen im Haushalt richtet. Bei 2 Personen müssten das 60 Liter pro Woche sein. Reicht euch das nicht, ruft ihr bei der Müllabfuhr an und lasst euch eine grössere Tonne schicken. Das müsst ihr dann aber immer bezahlen. Habt ihr nur einmalig mehr Müll, könnt ihr bei der Stadtverwaltung oder Müllabfuhr Säcke kaufen, die dann abgeholt werden. Alternativ ladet ihr den Müll ins Auto und fahrt ihn auf die Mülldeponie. Die nehmen von Privatpersonen eigentlich alles kostenlos an. Für Kaiserslautern Stadt ist es die Deponie Kapiteltal. Weiss nicht, ob die auch eure Sachen nehmen. Wenn nicht, steht in eurem Müllbuch sicher die zuständige Deponie.
vielen Dank für die Informationen! :)
@@PassportTwo BTW: don't know how much you understand, but famous german comedian Otto once explained how to recycle a teabag properly: ruclips.net/video/jBPIPzGBxYE/видео.html
And that is one of the main reasons why we behave ; sometimes; like condecending a**holes in other countries.
We had to learn all this recycling rules and we follow them like a moral code. If you do not do it ... you are a bad person.
After the WW2 we all knew, that ;as a nation; we did something atroucious.
Patriotism is now strongly associated with nationalism, so expressions of patrotic pride are always a little bit cringy for us.
So we redirict that in other areas like local pride in the village, city , state, sporting clubs "soccer" and other things that aren't tarnished by the Nazis... like enviromental protection.
Our enviromental efforts are a source of pride in this nation and we need new stuff to be proud of ... sadly the old stuff is slowly crawling back in.
To end on a more positiv note we love to recycle now but we will also complain about while secretly feeling totally smug about.
It is the german way , weird , an aquiered tast but still always trying to do it better than before and find better solutions.
Haha, this is all really interesting insight to the German psyche! Thanks for the explanations 😊
2:27 Omg.. that´s germany, my friends. *g*
haha, it so is 😂
ihr trennt euern müll ja besser als die deutschen haha
Wir geben unser Bestes! haha
There is a rumor. In the end, everything is thrown together again... 😁
Random, but I have visited a trash dump in Germany once and they showed us how it isn't all lumped together in the end and how proud they were that the non-recyclable trash was so small...but I have to admit...I did wonder if this was just for show. haha, we have heard the same rumors and have wondered about it, but even if it does. Still don't want to get in trouble so I guess we'll keep "playing the game!" haha
There have been some documentaries about this in North America on how our recycled materials end up in landfills. I keep recycling. I figure Europe is better about it since they are so strict about it.
@@bravegirlarise7672 This is true about North America, I listened to a lot of podcasts about this.
we have exactly same rumor here in Czech Republic, we have plastic, glass and paper dust bins everywhere but many people really believe they will mix it together :-D
GREENZ MEANS $$$ TO THE CONSUMER!! No thanks.
You just have to use your brain...
Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't thought if this option yet. We will give this a try and let you know how it works!