R E C Y C L I N G

All trash is not created equal here in Germany. Their recycling system is actually quite impressive- a way of living, not optional. While I understand the wisdom behind it, it's not easy for a girl who has {{never}} recycled in her life. I about freaked out when we saw the size of our garbage can. I think it's about 1/4 of the size of our old trash can and we had trouble fitting everything in it for our weekly pick up. I now realize that not much goes in there- it's all separated in different bags. It's crazy to have to actually think before throwing something away.

The bags were all delivered to our house with a little information note attached. Even including the English translation, it's still a little tricky to understand. The number of bags you get depends on your family size- you can't buy them at the store, they're delivered twice a year. We have clear, yellow and blue bags. Clear is for glass only which is only picked up every four weeks. Blue is for clean paper, cardboard, newspapers, magazines. But, no paper towel or anything dirty. This is picked up every two weeks. Yellow is for synthetic materials, metals and composite materials. Not to be confused with compost as I did... Only plastic containers, cartons, aluminum, foil, lids. Milk is sold in half gallon cartons which are easy to wash out and fold flat- using less space. Everything has to be washed out (or spoon clean). Our schedule says this gets picked up every two weeks, but we still haven't had ours collected- not sure when. Everything else goes in the black "regular" garbage can which is collected every two weeks as well. Right now, our trash sits out like this (along with another bag next to the sink for wet items) which drives me crazy... but, once we get our houshold goods (including our trash cans) I'll better be able to organize. All in time...