Garbage Sorting In Germany: Everyday Statist Idolatry

[Canoe_Captain]

Just want to share what garbage regime might be coming to your country soon or has it already arrived in similar form?

 

The neighbors enforce correct sorting among themselves. Neglectful sorters are ostracized by their neighbors by angry reprehension. If one of the 4 sorts of garbage (Paper=blue, Compost=brown, Residual=grey, Plastic=yellow) is not in the right garbage can than all garbage cans of same colour from that house are refused by the garbage collection service and the whole neighborhood is left is with full garbage cans. Angry neighbors would be the obvious result.

.

To be exact there are three different garbage tons and specially signed yellow bags. The yellow bags cannot be bought they have to be exchanged for vouchers. At the beginning of each year you get a stack of  3 vouchers.

Usually you can redeem a voucher at certain assigned stores in your area for one stack of new yellow bags. My foreign flatmate might have unknowingly disposed our 2015 stack of yellow bag vouchers and we need to call a hotline to get again 3 vouchers.

 

In the internet you also find a 24 page “garbage magazine” that gets distributed to every household that explains the sorting rules in detail. So the whole sorting is even more complex than I explained it here.

 

Besides this garbage procedure we also are required to sort our "one-way" glass bottles by color, (white, green and brown) and bring them to a sorting containing area usually ca. 1km away from your home.

Then there is also the bottle deposit system with certain reusable glass and plastic bottles which have have one deposit return system that only at certain shops integrated with a slightly different "one-way" plastic bottle deposit system.

 

This whole system hast to be judged with the fact in mind that automatic waste sorting is already used in some countries as is described in this news article: http://sciencenordic.com/machines-are-better-people-sorting-household-trash

 

Writing this article has cost me ca. 30 minutes and reading costs you ca. 5 minutes but if this regime gets implemented in your area it will cost you ca. 10 minutes a week with sorting and recycling, thats ca 8 hours per year. Of course that pales to the percentage amount you have to work just to pay taxes.

 

I attached  images of a garbage service calendar and garbage bag vouchers.

Here is a link to the garbage magazine: http://www.osnabrueck.de/images_design/Grafiken_Inhalt_AWB/OSB_Muellabfuhrkalender_2015.pdf

Just want to share what garbage regime might be coming to your country soon or has it already arrived in similar form?

 

The neighbors enforce correct sorting among themselves. Neglectful sorters are ostracized by their neighbors by angry reprehension. If one of the 4 sorts of garbage (Paper=blue, Compost=brown, Residual=grey, Plastic=yellow) is not in the right garbage can than all garbage cans of same colour from that house are refused by the garbage collection service and the whole neighborhood is left is with full garbage cans. Angry neighbors would be the obvious result.

.

To be exact there are three different garbage tons and specially signed yellow bags. The yellow bags cannot be bought they have to be exchanged for vouchers. At the beginning of each year you get a stack of  3 vouchers.

Usually you can redeem a voucher at certain assigned stores in your area for one stack of new yellow bags. My foreign flatmate might have unknowingly disposed our 2015 stack of yellow bag vouchers and we need to call a hotline to get again 3 vouchers.

 

In the internet you also find a 24 page “garbage magazine” that gets distributed to every household that explains the sorting rules in detail. So the whole sorting is even more complex than I explained it here.

 

Besides this garbage procedure we also are required to sort our "one-way" glass bottles by color, (white, green and brown) and bring them to a sorting containing area usually ca. 1km away from your home.

Then there is also the bottle deposit system with certain reusable glass and plastic bottles which have have one deposit return system that only at certain shops integrated with a slightly different "one-way" plastic bottle deposit system.

 

This whole system hast to be judged with the fact in mind that automatic waste sorting is already used in some countries as is described in this news article:http://sciencenordic...household-trash

 

Writing this article has cost me ca. 30 minutes and reading costs you ca. 5 minutes but if this regime gets implemented in your area it will cost you ca. 10 minutes a week with sorting and recycling, thats ca 8 hours per year. Of course that pales to the percentage amount you have to work just to pay taxes.

 

I attached  images of a garbage service calendar and garbage bag vouchers.

Here is a link to the garbage magazine: http://www.osnabruec...lender_2015.pdf

[fractional slacker]

Paying the government for the privilege of sorting garbage?
Beam me up, Scotty.