Garbage

I haven't posted in a while due to several things. I haven't been feeling the best. But no worries. I'm on the mend and getting better every day. We're being kept very busy with the many, many extra curricular activities at the NPC, from the Hail and Farewell and the NPC Fun Run to the SNO Call and Adam's promotion and the American hosting of our 4th of July celebration. Also, we have just been overwhelmed trying to fit an American household's worth of goods into an European house. That is an issue for another post that I hope to have written in the near future.

I'm kind of excited about this post I'm writing right now. Actually, it was Adam's idea (love you!). He wanted me to illustrate the huge difference in the way Americans dispose of their garbage and how we do it over here.

Back in Utah, we had a big 90-gallon drum sitting outside out house that we paid to have emptied every week. Everything went into this drum. Sure, we pulled out a few pizza boxes and maybe some glass and tin cans. But, for the most part, everything went in the trashcans inside the house and eventually made its way out to the big drum. Now, I will note that a year or two before we left, Roy City offered to give us a special drum to put our recyclables in to be emptied like the regular trash. But, hey! That cost $5 every month! Why pay to recycle when we can just add it to our already paid for trash service?!

Over here in Europe, things are done very differently. Honestly, it's quite complicated. So complicated, in fact, that they actually have to create a 56-page calendar describing different types of waste, which types of waste can be picked up at your house (and when!!), and how to dispose of the rest of it. The only big gallon drum we have is the Compost bucket, which we pay 36 Euros per year. We can put into this container vegetable-, fruit-, and garden-waste. The Compost bucket is emptied every two weeks, usually with the PMD.

Inside the house we have not one trash can, but three, and several crates (or plooi boxes, as they're called over here) for other recyclables. The trash cans are: the Diaper Genie (can't wait for that one to be gone!), the plastic, metal, and drinkkartons (PMD) recyclables can, and the actual trash can (restafval, or 'residual waste'). The plooi boxes hold the glass (separated into clear and colored) and the cardboard/paper recyclables. Each of these (except the Diaper Genie, which gets put in with the trash) has its own schedule or way of being disposed of.

The Trash Cans

The Paper and Glass

Each community has a container-park where we can choose to take our recyclables ourselves. The only way to get rid of the glass and many other waste products is to take it to the container-parks. We can choose to bring our PMD and paper recyclables as well, if we don't feel like stock-piling it for 2 weeks or 1 month.

The way they pick up the cardboard and paper goods (which, by the way, is the only free waste we can have taken from our area) is kind of different. It happens only once a month. In fact, we receive in the mail a reminder of which day it will happen, which roads will be picked up, and one other piece of information. The city does not actually do the afhaling (off-hauling). Instead, the flyer tells us who will be doing the picking up. Different groups are chosen each month, like bands, sports groups, etc. This is actually a money-maker for the groups, and the (usually) kids and young adults that do it get quite a kick out of being selected and riding around town picking up trash =)

Now, we don't just have big drums that we put our waste in and set on the curb to be picked up. But, we also don't pay the city a weekly or monthly fee for these services, either. The way the city makes its money for trash services (and also how it helps encourage recycling over just trashing every thing) is through the sales of the special bags we must purchase if we want to get rid of our PMD and trash. We can buy these bags at the Gemeentehuis (community center) or at the local grocery stores.The blauwe zakken (blue sacks) are for PMD recyclables. Each of these bags costs 2 Euro 50 cents, and are picked up every other week. The black bags are for the restafval and picked up on the weeks the blue bags are not. Each community has its own black bags, with the community name printed on it, etc. They will not pick up anything that's not in a special blue or black bag. Now, we could be really lazy and not separate out the recyclables and instead throw everything into the black bags. However, each one of those costs 12 Euro 50 cents!!!! Thus, recycling is the much cheaper option. Therefore, we separate out as much plastic, metal, glass, and cardboard as we can to save money and reduce the amount of black bags we fill.

I will say that one of the really surprising parts of the waste disposal/recycling/reusing is that there are numerous second-hand stores tied into this process. I've been wanting to go shopping with one of my new girlfriends for a while now, and she told me about the Kringwinkels (Circle Stores). They have their own website and a big brochure and are pretty cool on their own. That the stores work in conjunction with the trash system is just amazing. The afvalkalender tells us in many places to take usable goods to these stores instead of to the container parks. They give jobs to people on hard times. They serve as a place for goods to become reborn, selling necessary goods at dirt cheap prices and finer things for a bit more, making profits that go back out to the community. What a great partnership! If you have Google Chrome, you should check out both of these websites: http://www.limburg.net and http://www.dekringwinkel.be

So, the next time your husband balks at you for asking him to take out the trash, just remind him how simple his task truly is! Meanwhile, while we're in Europe, we will be like the locals and do our part separating the trash from the recyclables and navigating our way through through the trash collection calendar! Ta ta!